Things Always Seem To Happen
by Lauz1
Summary: Set after S2. The gang are back together for the start of a new school year, but things have changed. There's a pregnancy, a secret romance and a shocking confession. Heavily LP with NH and BN
1. Beginning

**Writers Note: Okay so story is the same as the show. Takes place after S2 and picks up just before school starts over the summer. I don't know where I'm heading with this yet, I don't know what the couples will be...but I can tell you that all characters will be featured; Nathan, Haley, Brooke, Lucas and Peyton. With possible occurances from Rachel, Mouth, Skills and all others. **

**So: **

**Brooke left to go see her parents in California. Haley came back home to be with Nathan but Nathan left for basketball camp. Lucas and Peyton spent the summer together. We jump back in with drama, lies, violence, sex etc. It's gonna be full on I think, in those terms. **

**----**

"So how's my life?" She pauses, "My life is complicated. Most of you know my story by now, my name is Peyton Sawyer and I live in a place called Tree Hill. It's not one of those weird wacky little towns where everyone knows everyone but it is small, a small town which revolves around one thing; Basketball. See apparently, back in the 1980's when big hair and oversized jewelry was the bitchin' thing, Dan Scott ruled the town, this simple high school teenager was the main focus of the town because of some great three point shot he had or whatever it is. Everything was going great for him, he was admired by guys and wanted by girls, he had a scholarship to go to college to play basketball…but something happened. He knocked up his high school sweetheart (Karen) and left her holding the baby. I bet you're thinking what makes him different to any other asshole who leaves his knocked up high girlfriend…well, he went off to college and knocked up his next girlfriend (Deb). Pretty powerful sperm, there huh? So two women knocked up by this guy who is worshiped like a hero…how does this affect me? Well he quit college and moved back to Tree Hill with pregnant girlfriend number two and set up house with her. Way over on the other side of Tree Hill, the wrong side of the tracks…his high school sweetheart set up house with no-one and raised the baby alone. I say raised the baby alone, she had help from Dan's brother, Keith. Are you still following? I know, complicated huh? But it gets even more complicated. Over the years, the two offspring of Dan Scott, Nathan and Lucas live their lives separately. Nathan, Mr. Popularity with his basketball and Lucas, well he wasn't popular but like Nathan, he had inherited the Scott pedigree of basketball. He was good, so good that when Nathan and his fellow basketball team mates got busted for high jacking the school bus, Coach Durham (he's the basketball coach at Tree Hill High, he seems like a hard ass to some, to me he has always been understanding and an ear to talk to.) Anyways, Coach Durham watched Lucas play basketball down at the Rivercourt, saw what he liked and gave him the opportunity of fame and glory, well okay playing for your high school team isn't exactly fame but in this town it is…and well for the glory part, would meant that he would get noticed by those he wanted to see him….cue in me, Peyton Sawyer the broody blonde cheerleader who was dating his brother, Nathan Scott. Do you see how it's complicated? Well, we're not even at the beginning of being complicated…Hmm, basically I was dating Nathan but then Lucas came onto the scene and he was all Lucas-like, broody and deep and soulful it was unnerving to see someone who could see past everything, past the façade I called a life and see who I was. So naturally, I questioned my relationship with Nathan (I think you should know, back then Nathan was just like his old man, an ass. Simple as.) So I broke it off with Nathan, while my best friend Brooke Davis took an interest in Lucas. So it kinda turned into this whole big love triangle…while my not so heartbroken ex-boyfriend was putting the moves onto Lucas's best friend, Haley James. So while Nathan was wooing Haley, I went over to Lucas's to declare that I felt exactly the same way he did and I wanted it all with him, only to see Brooke walk out half naked in his football jersey. So…Brooke started to date Lucas (and I didn't object, in my mind I was screaming at myself, but hey it's what you do for a best friend right? Put their happiness first) Hmm well, I tried…but the feelings Lucas and I had for one another, were too strong. So yeah, I became that girl. The skanky ass hoe who makes out with her best friend's boyfriend….As you can imagine things didn't end well. Brooke found out, Lucas and I didn't really ever get together and Nathan and Haley got married…" She smiles and shakes her head, "Okay so maybe this is a weird and wacky little town, but I'm only half way through my story…you see Brooke and I patched things up, and became best of friends again. Lucas kind of made his way back to being both of our friends."

Peyton sits back from her computer and looks up to the microphone atop of her computer screen, she looks off to the side, pondering whether or not continue. Slowly she shakes and looks back to the computer screen, leans forward and begins to speak again. "Let's just jump to now, the present. Skipping past the Felix, the Anna, the drugs and what I thought was the love of my life, Jake...skipping past all of that, we'll just jump right before summer, so….Haley and Nathan got married, but when Haley got the chance to go away and become a singing sensation, she did…but she came back, right before the start of summer. She tried to convince Nathan that she made a mistake that her life was with him…but he left and went away to basketball camp. Lucas, Brooke and I…well, Lucas had declared his feelings to Brooke before the start of summer, but she said she couldn't and she left. Leaving Lucas and I alone…I was heartbroken over Jake leaving and he was heartbroken over Brooke leaving, so needless to say we spend a lot of time together over the summer…just hanging out, listening to music, going to see the occasional band and stuff…but three weeks ago, something happened…something we can't take back" Peyton pauses again and closes her eyes.

**---**

_The stars are shining brightly against the black cloudless sky. Tree Hill looks like a ghost town, with the streets deserted and the shops closed. It was the end of summer parade by the river, where the local towns people would gather and step aboard the imported pirate ship which for that night was turned into a mixture of a casino and a nightclub, for all ages. It was the place to be that night, not for Lucas and Peyton though. The two of them, walked side by side down the street, heading away from the river. Peyton's short blonde curly locks flowed freely behind her with each gentle breeze. "You know, this summer has been great. I mean, aside from the fact that at the start of it we were both broken hearted, lost souls…" She says with a smile planted on her face, trying to hide her still, inner feeling of heartache from losing Jake. "but we pulled through it together." She turns and looks at Lucas, whose face is clearly lit by the street lights. _

_Lucas couldn't help but smile, he knew deep down Peyton was still hurting from Jake because deep down he was still at a loss over what happened with Brooke. The two of them were in the same boat, they always had been. "Yeah we did." He shook his head, "And you're right this summer has been great…" He stops and looks down at the floor. "It's always going to be there." _

_Peyton stops and turns back, looking at Lucas. She slowly walks over to him and looks down at the floor. "I don't know, probably not…paths always get repathed, ya know!" She says jokingly looking at him, she knew he was referring to the path underneath their feet but to be truthful she didn't know what he was talking about. _

_He looks up at her, looking into her emerald colored eyes and gently smiles. "Nice, I try and be honest and you crack a joke…" He pauses and tilts his head slightly, "Huh, just like old times."_

_Peyton sighs and playfully punches him on the shoulder, "…Sarcasm is a form of honesty…or something." She rolls her eyes, "So. What's always going to be there?" She looks at him and then looks to the side. "See not cracking a joke, no sarcastic comment…"She smiles and looks directly up into his baby blue eyes, "Just pure curiosity…what's always going to be there?" _

"_Us…" _

_Neither of the two of them breaks eye contact. Neither of them says anything. They are just standing still, almost acting as though it's a standoff…until Lucas leans in closer to Peyton, raising his hands to her face. He smiles as he cups her face, bringing their heads closer to one another…_

"_Lucas – what are doing?" Peyton asks, barely high than a whisper, feeling both nerves and excited butterflies in her stomach. If they kiss, what does it mean? Does it mean they are going to be a couple? Or are they just comforting one another, over being lonely. _

"_I don't know – can't we just simply be, just for one second. You and Me, no thoughts of the future…no thoughts of the past, just be." He says watching as she nods gently to him. He leans in and presses his lips against her. They kiss, softly as Lucas's hands run down from the side of her face to her back, pulling her closer to him, as the kiss deepens and becomes more passionate. _

**----**

As Peyton opens her eyes, a tear drops down her cheek. "What brought us together that night? Was it because we were both lonely? Most likely…but on my part, it was more than that. It always has been between us." Peyton sighs and turns her head looking to the clock on the wall, it's getting late. She sighs, and leans back in her chair looking at the computer screen… "Brooke came home this week, her and Lucas are trying to make a go of things. Lucas and I go on as nothing happened, he tried to talk about what happened between us, but typical me, Peyton Sawyer I closed myself off time him. Told it was nothing and that it was just us being lonely…and that we should forget about it." Peyton sighs, "But the truth is I can't forget about it. I have a decision to make…" She moves the mouse and the arrow on the screen begins to move. She clicks delete and a little sign come sup. Do you want to delete your this podcast? Yes or No? She picks up the pregnancy test from the left hand side of the desk with her other hand. She turns it on its side and looks at the little positive symbol. Letting out a deep sigh, she looks back to the computer screen can clicks on the Yes button and watches as the screen reverts back to its usual settings. Peyton turns and looks at the pregnancy test again, she stares at the positive symbol. She shakes her head, where do I go from here?

**----**

Lucas walks into his bedroom, his body dripping wet with water. The only thing covering his modesty, a towel wrapped around his waist. He walks over to his desk and sits down, opening his laptop and he looks at the screen, that reads Punk'd and Disorderly. He sees the screen is black, no Peyton webcam. He looks to the side of the screen, no new podcast. It was unusual for Peyton not to be on her webcam, usually she would just sit in front of her computer and draw. He liked to watch her draw, it made him feel relaxed. Why wasn't she drawing? They hadn't spent much time together this week with Brooke being back home, he thought it was because of what happened between them three weeks ago but Peyton told him clearly, what happened…it didn't mean anything. They were just lonely and there for one another. But the truth was that night, he wasn't lonely. He had made love to the girl he had always wanted. It was perfect, they were perfect…but reality set in and Peyton went back to being her usual self, pretending nothing happened. So he did the same…they were just friends again. But that night the were more than friends, they were – half way through his mind rant to himself, he hears his phone rings. Standing up, Lucas walks away from his desk and picks up his phone from his bedside cabinet. Brooke Calling He sighs and smiles to himself, flipping them phone open. "Hey…"


	2. The First Day Of School

It was the first day back at school. It was the beginning of the end, becoming a senior meant one more year of high school and then it was goodbye Tree Hill and hello anywhere else. No more pep rallies, no more cheerleading…no more free life. After high school it was either college or reality, getting a nine to five job; something which never really held any appeal to her. She had told herself during summer that this year she was going back to being old school Brooke Davis, carefree cheerleader whose motto is anything that's fun. Although starting things up again with Lucas might interfere with that motto slightly, so she had told him clearly that they could see each other non-exclusively….well she had actually been a little more blunt and straight to the point. Over the summer, her self esteem had hit an all time high when she was admired by many guys; most of whom were the typical Californian stereotype, young and tanned with muscle bound bodies that were to die for. Most of the summer she had indulged herself in their company, not really thinking too much about Tree Hill and what she left behind…but that was until she bumped into a familiar face.

_The sun was setting and it was beautiful, the different shades of pink, oranges and reds all merged together creating a truly beautiful sunset. She wasn't supposed to be paying attention to the sky though; she was supposed to be looking out onto the road watching that she was staying in her lane. The top of her car was down so her hair was flowing freely behind her with the gentle breeze, her long brown slightly curled locks didn't sway much though due to the sufficient amount of hairspray she had put on before leaving the house . She clicked her indicator up and turned right, driving into a car park. Opening the car door, she emerged from the Red convertible and smiled. Many men's eyes were featured on her body which was barely covered in a bare of dark denim daisy duke short jeans/hot pants and a black halter top, showing off the top of her cleavage. She was also standing about four inches taller with her black ankle boots with metal heels. Slowly she made her way past the group of adoring men and made her way into the bar. She had never been here before, but it was familiar none-the-less, any bar seemed familiar to her. Making her way over to the bar, she slid onto a bar stool and sat waiting to be served. _

_A young cute blonde haired boy made his way over to her and sat beside her. He nodded to the bartender; "I'll have a Jack and coke and the lady will have…" With a cocky grin he turned and looked at Brooke. _

_Brooke smirked and turned slightly on her stool, "My mother told me never to accept a drink from a stranger." She said in a playful tone, arching her eyebrow at him. _

_He laughed and nodded to himself, "Sounds like you're mother is a wise woman…I'm Alec." He extended his hand out, closer to her body hoping that she would shake his hand. _

_Brooke looked at the bartender, who was clearly checking out her curves. She had remembered to bring her fake ID and she wasn't even going to get carded. "Hmm, anything that has an umbrella in it." She smiles sweetly at him. _

"_So…does this beauty have a name?" Alec asks. _

_Brooke laughs and shakes her head, in amusement. "Does this beauty have a name?" She quotes him as she turns and looks at him, "Thanks for the drink, but I suggest you work a little harder on the pick up lines sunshine." She paused, looking him up and down, giving him the once over. "You've got the looks, I'll give you that but it takes a little more than just a cute smile to win this beauty over." _

_Alec nods to himself, in self defeat. "Okay, well I guess I lost." He watches as Brooke turns and looks at him obviously curious what he meant by that comment. "Explanation okay." He pauses and leans in closer to her, "I'm here with some of my, I guess you could say some of my protégées. I'm like a mentor to them, a Yoda…and we've all got this running bet to see who can get the hottest girl's number the quickest." Alec turns his head slightly and looks back over to the group of guys he came with. He looks back at Brooke and smiles, "And now you think I'm an ass…so I'm gonna go." He slides off of the stool, with the Jack and coke in his hands heading back to his table. _

_Brooke looks at the bartender and smiles as he places a cocktail down in front of her. She looks off to the side of the bar; maybe she was a little harsh to the cute guy who bought her a drink. She could have at least given him a fake phone number, so he could have won the bet. Turning on her stool slightly, she looks over to the group of guys in the corner. Seeing Alec with a few good looking, slightly younger guys about the same age as her and…she pauses when she sees a familiar face. A smirk appears on her face and she looks up to the bartender, "Do you have a pen I could borrow." _

_The bartender nods and takes the pen out of the pocket on his shirt and hands it to the pretty brunette. _

"_Thanks." Taking the pen in her hand, she slides a cocktail napkin over to her and begins to write her name and number down. Smiling she hands the pen back to the bartender, "I'll be right back, guard my drink." She spins herself on the chair and jumps off, her heels clicking as they bounce against the floor. She slowly makes her way over to the group of guys, who aren't looking in her director. Swaying her hips, she places the napkin down on the table in front of them…and smiles, as she gets all of their attention. _

"_Beauty with no name." Alec smirks to himself, leaning back in the booth slightly impressed with himself. "I guess I won you over, huh?" _

_Brooke looks at him and then turns her attentions back to the familiar face and smiles sliding the napkin over to him. "Here's my name and number…" She pauses and looks around the table. She leans over the table slightly more, "Call me sometime…or if you really wanna have some fun, come and join me for a drink." She winks at him before turning on her heels. She walks back over to the bar, and sits back down on her stool. Picking up her drink, she takes a sip and smiles as she feels someone sit next to her. _

"_So I guess I owe you a thank you…" _

_Brooke smirks, "you mean for letting you win the bet with your lame ass friends or for giving you some better company for five minutes..." She pauses and places her drink back down onto the bar counter. She doesn't bother to turn and look at him; instead she just asks another question. "So the bet, how much did you win?" _

"_Fifteen hundred dollars." He replies. _

"_Not bad" She says nodding to herself. "I guess I earned at least three hundred." She finally turns and looks at him, "Don't you, Nathan?" _

_Nathan smirks and shakes his head, "I didn't ask you to come over, Brooke." He sighs and shakes his head to himself. "I didn't even know you were in here." _

_Brooke nods, "Okay then so do you want me to go back over there and tell those guys that we're friends from high school…wouldn't that like" She pauses and acts dumb, "forfeit your winnings?" _

_Nathan sighs, sure she did him a favor by walking over and handing him her phone number. He hadn't attempted to get any numbers from any girls yet, which was starting to make the guys question him and his objectives. It was nice to see a familiar face to be truthful, at camp he acted like old school Nathan Scott, Mr. Big Shot…but he was growing tired of it. He wasn't that guy anymore and he just wanted to stop pretending for five minutes…so he was happy to see Brooke for that reason, but for another he was slightly annoyed. He had left Tree Hill for the summer to get away from everything and everyone there, everyone being Haley. So seeing Brooke was a reminder of the hurt and heartache that was Tree Hill…, "Fine, whatever…but not here and not now, don't want to make it look like I paid you to come over."_

Brooke smiled gently thinking back, they had bumped into each other accidentally during the last few weeks of summer, but after having bumped into each other they decided to meet up and just hang out. Nathan said he was tired of being with the guys all the time and girls that just wanted to get laid by the basketball stars, and Brooke was getting tired of the lame-ass chat up lines most of the west coast guys seemed to use on her. So they hung out and talked, Nathan was reluctant at first really to talk about Haley but he did eventually…and she talked about Lucas, how she wasn't sure if they should get together because of what had happened before and how Lucas had broken her heart. They were just two broken hearted people…joined together by pure chance. Something happened between them…they actually became, true friends. Brooke Davis and Nathan Scott, sure they had known each other and had talked with one another many a time (they had even made drunken passes at one another, on several different occasions) but now they were actual friends, and it was nice. Brooke smiled at the sweet memories as she leaned in closer to the mirror, thinly applying mascara to her darkened eyelashes.

-------

On the other side of town, Peyton stepped out of the doctor's clinic. She had made an appointment the previous day, after having taken the pregnancy test. She wanted to see whether or not it was just her body playing cruel jokes on her. The doctor had told her that he would inform her as soon as he knew what the results were…as soon as he knew, that wasn't soon enough for her. She was hoping that the test was negative, that she wasn't pregnant…at least then she could go back to being her usual self…but she knew her luck and betted on the other; being pregnant. She shook her head and decided just to forget about it, at least for now. After all she was already running late for her first day back at school, she sighed and slowly made her way to her black opened topped car.

-------

Peyton pulled into an empty space in the school car park. She grabbed her brown bag from the passenger's seat and threw it over her shoulder as she stepped out of the car. She noted that no-one had actually made their way inside yet, they were just loitering around on the grounds probably talking about how their summers went. Hmm, how was she going to respond to that and a smirk covered her face, as she thought to herself; **Yeah my summer was great ya know, saw a couple of live bands, hung out and listened to music, I might be knocked up by my best friend's ex boyfriend…who subsequently is now her boyfriend again**. She couldn't help herself; sarcasm was just in her nature. She walked around the rear of her car and head towards the school building.

Brooke opened the door to he baby blue colored Beetle and stepped out. She was dressed to impress in her cheerleading outfit, her makeup flawlessly applied and the perfected loose curls in her hair screamed salonesque wonderful. She saw Peyton ahead, walking towards the school. She hadn't really spoken to her best friend much since getting back from California; come to think of it she had actually spoken to her more when she was in California. Brooke began to skip and made her way towards Peyton, coming up behind her and linking arms. "Hey P.Sawyer…miss me?" Brooke stops and strikes a pose beside Peyton.

Peyton stops, and turns and looks at Brooke, a smile creeping on her face. "Not so much..." She said jokingly, watching as Brooke overly acted the pout. "Ooh look at that, we're not even inside school yet and she's working the pout."

Brooke laughed and linked arms with Peyton once more, the two of them began to walk towards the school building again. "I know we haven't really talked since I've been back, so…B.F tell me, how was your summer?"

Peyton turns and looks at Brooke and immediately the pregnancy and her **Yeah my summer was great…**speech sprang to mind. She shook her head and sighed, "It was…uneventful." She lied; she couldn't exactly tell Brooke that she thought she might be pregnant. She wanted to tell someone…she wanted to tell Brooke, but she couldn't because of the Lucas factor…she could always say that she slept with some random guy, but then it might get back to Lucas and then there would be all kinds of drama, drama she didn't want.

"Of course it was uneventful…"Brooke shook her head, "I wasn't here. You know I'm the ying to your yang…the Shaggy to your Scooby." Brooke smirked. "Fun without Brooke, is like fire without wind…just not possible." Brooke and Peyton entered the school hallways and noted all of the people dashing around, new kids looking lost, jocks looking overly beefed up and cheerleaders looking ever so cheery. Brooke sighed, "So, as this is our senior year, I'm throwing a party at the beach…where there will be half naked booty for you and me to oogle and possibly fondle." She smirked and bites her bottom lip as she looks at Peyton, imagining all of the good looking guys, half naked.

Peyton shook her head, "Aren't you supposed to be a one man woman now?" She paused, and raised her brow. Was that the right saying? It just sounded so wrong.

"Me? In my senior year…uh no." Brooke shook her head, dramatically. "Lucas and I are just dating – none exclusively…and that's the way it's gonna stay." She rolls her eyes as she hears the bell ring. She starts to walk backwards, away from Peyton but still looking at her. "Gotta go to the gym and organize our time for cheerleading, I don't want pervy-basketball players oogling our goodies while we're trying to practice." Brooke winks at Peyton before turning around and skipping away down the corridor.

So Brooke and Lucas were dating but non-exclusively? What was she supposed to do with that news? Jump for joy that she might be pregnant with her best friend's non-exclusive boyfriend? She shook her head, she was even more confused now than ever. Her goal for the day: to avoid all the drama and just be a recluse. She shook her head and turned around, bumping straight into the man at the root of her drama…

Lucas.


	3. So This Is How It Is

Here they were, together. Peyton hadn't even been in school for five minutes before bumping into him. Just when she was telling herself that she would do her best to stay away from him, he was standing right in front of her. Was fate playing some cruel joke on her? Was she supposed to act all normal around him, as thought nothing had happened? She didn't think she could do that, especially today but she had to try… "Hey." A gentle smile accompanied her greeting, underneath the smile though she could feel the awkwardness of the situation. Break the ice, she thought to herself. "So I'm into this whole Snow Patrol phase at the moment." She said, as she began to walk down the hallway, knowing that whether or not she said something Lucas would follow her. "And just to let you know, I completely blame you for that."

Lucas smiled, remember back to the summer. Peyton had told him that she had made it her priority not to like Snow Patrol because every pop crazed teenager seemed to like them and she wanted to remain true to her music style; and dislike most of the popular music. "I'm sorry, I take full responsibility" He said, jokingly. His smile faded as they continued to walk down the hallway, neither of them looking at one another. So it was back being friends, after all that had happened between them during summer…they were just friends. He didn't know if he could go back to being that guy, but he didn't want to lose Peyton…so it was better to be a friend to be nothing at all. "So I haven't seen you much this week." He said, this time it was him attempting to break the ice.

Peyton turned and looked at him, "Yeah I've just been really busy." She said, honestly. She had been busy, to take her mind off of the whole sleeping with him she had taken it upon herself to decorate her father's room, she would have done her own but it wasn't that long ago she had decorated it and she really didn't have the energy to go all artistic on her own room. "So uh – I heard about you and Brooke being none-exclusive, are you okay with that?"

Lucas turned and looked at her, he knew that subject of Brooke was going to come up sooner or later, he had preferably wanted it to be later. What was he supposed to say, he was heartbroken that Brooke hadn't wanted to be in a fully exclusive relationship with him? He couldn't say that because it was a lie, but he couldn't tell her the truth either; that he had secretly been wishing for Peyton to come to him and confess that she was in love with him. Who was he kidding? If anything, she had shown him that she regretted everything that had happened…and last time he opened up to her, he got his heartbroken. So was it better being with Brooke than being with no-one? For him it was, he was tired of being alone. So instead he settled on a simple answer; "Yeah I am."

Peyton looked at him surprised, "I don't get it." She looked up to the ceiling and frowned, "This past summer all you've talked about is Brooke and how loved up you were…and suddenly you're okay with dating her while she dates other people?"

"Suddenly?" He had unintentionally let that slip out. How could she think it was suddenly? They had slept together, a month ago. Did she really think he could be that guy, be the guy to sleep with a girl he didn't care about? He looked at her and noted that she looked taken aback by his question. "I'm fine with it, besides who said she would be the only one dating other people?" Okay, that came off defensive and it made him sound like a jerk, but he couldn't help it.

"Really…" She said with a smirk, "I didn't know you were such a playboy." She joked, trying to relieve the tension between the two of them. She was about to say something else when she felt a vibration against her leg. "Hold on…" She said to him, as she reached deep within her jeans pockets and pulled out her mobile phone. She read the screen, **Doctor's Calling. **"I've gotta take this." She said abruptly and walked away from Lucas, in the opposite direction heading out of the school building. She was trying to forget the whole pregnancy thing, but obviously fate wasn't being kind to her today. Fate wasn't going to give her a break. Flipping the phone open, she spoke into it. "Hello?" She paused, listening…she shook her head, "No, um. I can't come in right now..." She could tell her tone sounded moody, but she couldn't help it. "Over the phone is fine, I just want to know…" She paused and took a deep breath, she was about to find out whether or not she was pregnant.

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Haley walked out of the tutoring centre. It had been a long time since she had been there. Even before she had abandoned school and her marriage earlier in the year, she had been going to the tutoring centre less and less. It seemed the woes that came with marriage; like worrying about how they were going to pay the bills took up most of her time. She had decided over summer though, she was reverting herself back to the old Haley James…tutor girl. Nathan had after all fallen in love with her like that and she figured the best way to win back his trust and love was to become that girl again. As she turned the corner, she bumped into Nathan head on and dropped all off the papers in heads. She looked up at him a little embarrassed, but didn't say anything as she bent down and began to pick up the papers.

"Sorry…" Nathan said simply. He bent down and gathered the papers in a pile and straightened them out. He looked at Haley as he did, he hadn't seen her since that night when she came to his doorstep and asked him to forgive her and give her a second chance. She had called him several times over the summer, but he had just put the calls straight to voice mail, he wanted to leave Tree Hill behind but in the end that seemed to be an impossible task after having bumped into Brooke in California. He frowned to himself and slowly stood up with the majority of papers in his hands. He watched as Haley stood up, with the rest of the papers gathered in her hands. "Here…" He gave her the papers.

"Thanks." Haley smiled as Nathan nodded to her. He could have just walked away, she thought to herself. But he didn't, he stayed and helped her pick up the papers. Maybe she was reading too much into it, maybe she wasn't. As Nathan went to step beside her, she decided the best way to approach this, them, was to be in his face. "So um, I tried to call you over the summer…" She said looking up at him, she could tell he was doing his best to avoid looking at her directly. "I mean I know why you didn't answer or call me back, I do…I just want you to know, that I get it."

Nathan gave up and looked down into her eyes. "Do you?" He asked, "Do you really get it Haley?" He sighed, he hadn't walked out on their marriage, she had. He hadn't kissed another girl, she had kissed Chris. He wanted to forgive her, before summer he had even wanted to take her back but now, well things well different. "If you got it Haley, you wouldn't be talking to me right now." He said upset, his voice a little shaky. He didn't like being mean, especially to her…he wasn't that guy anymore, but she had hurt him and he couldn't disguise that, no matter how much he wanted to. "I'll see you around." Nathan walked around Haley and headed off down the hallway.

Haley turned, watching him walk away. She was trying ever so hard to keep the tears at bay. She hated that she had hurt him so much, she hated that she had hurt him at all but she knew that if she wasn't persistent with him then they would go back to being strangers and she couldn't do that.

------

Brooke was inside of the gymnasium, dressed in her cheerleading outfit. She was standing in the centre of the court, with her back to the door. Music was blaring from the speakers and she raised an arm in the air. "Five, six, seven, eight…" He counted before she practised a couple of cheerleading moves. As she finished, she heard clapping coming from behind her. She turned around and looked at the door, seeing Nathan stood there watching her.

"Not bad…" Nathan said slowly making his way over to her. He smiled, "I especially liked this one." He said as he made a circle with his hips, imitating Brooke. "If you do that during a basketball game, it'll throw our opponents off and give us an advantage." He said, playfully. Was he flirting with her? They had bonded over the last few weeks of summer and he had opened up to her about everything.

_Nathan knocked on an opened door. He peered in and looked around the bedroom, it was very pink. The walls were painted in a baby pink colour and the carpet was a darker shade of pink. It was very much a girl's room. He walked into the bedroom further and saw Brooke in the corner of the bedroom, with her back to him. He couldn't tell what she was doing, but he noted the earphones in her ears which obviously meant she hadn't heard his knock. Walking up behind her, he taped her shoulder. _

_Brooke screamed and turned around immediately. She let out a deep sigh of relief, seeing Nathan standing there. Removing the earphones from her ear, she let them dangle from her neck. "What the hell are you doing?" She hit him on the arm quite hard, but playfully. "You don't just walk into a girl's bedroom…manors much?" _

_Nathan laughed, "I knocked…" He shook his head and turned around looking around the room, "Nice room…very pink." He said turning back to look at Brooke. Up until that point they had just kept meeting in the bar. He went there to get away from the guys and the Dan Scott like basketball couch and she had told him that she kept meeting him because she felt sorry for him, she said it jokingly at the time but he knew that she did feel sorry for him. _

_Brooke walked over to her double bed and sat down, "Yeah…my mom decorated it." She said sarcastically. "Personally I think she did it after one too many" She said imitating taking a shot of drink. "Hmm, but the things that come in the room, the full length mirror, the huge closet…the double bed…" She said, continuing "I think they're trying to get me to stay here, indefinitely." _

_Nathan nodded, "Not a bad bribe. I had to go back to my dad's, you're lucky you get a choice." He had told Brooke over a couple of drinks about him reluctantly moving back into his father's house. He couldn't afford the rent on the apartment without Haley and to be honest, he was sick and tired of being there. The place just reminded him of her and it was torture. "Hmm…you know if I didn't know any better," He said, "I would think that you were hitting on me?"_

_Brooke scoffed, "Right, yeah that's what I'm doing." She said sarcastically. _

"_Hey, I just say it as I see it." He smirked, "I mean why else would you mention you're double bed." Nathan winked at her, playfully. _

"_Hmm, now if I was really hitting on you…I would mention that my parents aren't in." She smirked, playing back with him. If there was anything she was good at, being playful and flirting was it. "So – hate to break up the thought of us getting all hot and naked with one another…but I have to ask," She said taking in a deep breath. "Are you ready to go back to Tree Hill tomorrow?"_

_He shrugged, "Are you?" _

"_Okay so what are you gonna do about the whole, tutor girl thing? You know you can't avoid her and I know deep down you don't want to." _

_Slowly he made his way over to her double bed and sat down beside her. He looked straight ahead and sighed. "I will always love Haley, but I just can't forgive and forget, it doesn't matter how much I want to…" He turned and looked at Brooke, "What about you?" _

"_Well I like Haley, but I don't think I'm in love with her." She said jokingly. She knew he was referring to Lucas, but she wanted to add a little humour to their conversation. "I've been thinking about it a lot this past few weeks and I can't go back to being that girl I was. I've moved on, I'm all for the fun stuff but the broken hearted thing…I just don't want to do that again." _

"_Me too" He said, nodding. The two of them look at one another, they were both in the same boat. Sure Brooke wasn't married to Lucas, but she knew what it was like to get your heart broken and it wasn't a pretty thing. _

Brooke smirked and walked over to the side of the gymnasium, she sat down at the bottom of the wooden bleachers and watched as Nathan made his way over and sat beside her. "So what brings you to the gym? Shouldn't you be in the first class of the day?"

Nathan turned and looked at her, raising his brow. "Shouldn't you?" He smirked and looked away. They were good at that, playing off one another. They were friends now, like real friends. They talked about real things and they were just honest with one another, it was refreshing. "I bumped into Haley in the hallway and I just needed to blow off some steam."

"I'm skipping Spanish." Brooke admitted, she looked at Nathan and felt sympathy for him. He had been through so much this past year, it was tough for him. She had gotten close to him, closer than she thought she should…was she starting to feel something for him more than, just friends? She smirked and stood up, "Okay…well you can show me your lame ass jump shot and I can show you some more moves that'll distract your opponents" She joked. Extending her arms, she held them out offering Nathan her hands to help him up.

He looked up at her and smiled. Shaking his head, he took her hands and stood up.

-------

Haley walked out of the school building. It was lunch time and she had to run a few errands; she had a free period after lunch so she figured now would be the best time to do so. Heading down the pathway, she saw Peyton ahead sitting on the steps. Slowly she made her way over, they hadn't really talked over the summer. She knew Peyton disapproved of the way Haley left, and she could understand that. People always seemed to abandon her and she felt guilty, they were friends…close friend and she didn't like that there seemed to be a distance between them now, especially with her and Nathan not being on the best of terms. "Hey…" She said as she came up behind Peyton. "What ya doing?"

Peyton turned around and looked up at Haley. That was a good question, what was she doing? She had skipped morning classes and just sat there on the step, doing nothing. She slowly stood up and looked at Haley. Right there and right then, she burst into a fit of tears. She had done so well right up until then.

Haley watched as Peyton cried, she had never seen Peyton cry before. She took a step closer and wrapped her arms around Peyton, hugging her. So maybe they weren't exactly on the best of terms right now, but Peyton was clearly hurting and she was a friend. So she did what a friend would do, she wanted to be there for her. "Peyton's what's wrong?"

Peyton pulled back from Haley's hug, her eyes were red from the crying. Tears were still forming and falling from her eyes and sliding down her cheeks, "I can't talk to Brooke…I just don't know who I cant talk to." She said in between sobs.

Haley nodded, "You can tell me Peyton."

Peyton nodded and tried to say something but no words came out of her mouth. She let out a deep sigh and looked up to the sky and then back down, "I'm pregnant…"


	4. Trying To Be Normal

Peyton ran through her bedroom and headed straight for the bathroom that was connected to her bedroom. She opened the toilet seat and bent down, her face facing the bottom of the toilet. Her eyes felt as though the were burning from all of the crying she had done, her face felt dry even though there were remaining tears hanging on her cheeks. Taking in a deep breath, she swallowed some air before throwing up a little in the basin of the toilet.

Haley walked into Peyton's bedroom and looked in towards the bathroom, seeing Peyton hovering over the toilet seat. She was carrying her own school bag on her shoulder and Peyton's bag on the other shoulder. Haley slowly took off Peyton's brown bag and placed it down on the bed. She looked around the room, it hadn't changed since she was last in there, which was unusual. She knew that Peyton liked to decorate her bedroom, it was like she was constantly trying to reinvent herself. She turned and saw Peyton emerging from the bathroom, "Stupid question, but how are you feeling?"

Peyton lifted her hands to her face, wiping away the remaining tears. She moved her hands to her forehead and ran them back, running her fingertips through her blonde curly locks. "Better…" She laughed and shook her head, "Better than I was earlier." Slowly she made her way over to her double bed and sat down the edge and then she looked up at Haley…she had confessed to Haley earlier about being pregnant, confessed? Was that the right word…no, she had broken down and confessed at the same time. She was actually grateful for Haley showing up when she did, she was grateful to Haley full stop. Haley had offered to drive her home and be a shoulder to cry on at the same time, never asking a question.

Haley sighed and sat next to Peyton, she leaned over and rested a hand on Peyton's. "So…" She said with a half smile on her face, with her brow lowered. "I've done my best right up until now, but I'm gonna have to ask…"

"Who's the father?" Peyton guessed and watched as Haley nodded. During the ride back to her house, Peyton had just ranted on about being too young to be pregnant, had ranted about what her father was going to say, boy that would be in an interesting conversation. Not once did she mention what actually happened over summer, she didn't want to go into those details. Instead, her thoughts were more about herself. What was she going to do? She had two options, she could either have the baby or she could have an abortion…simple as. She turned and looked back at Haley, who was obviously anticipating an answer. "I –uh," Was she going to tell her the truth? "I met a guy during summer, he was passing through town. One tequila, too many and one thing led to another and bam." She said looking down at her, now flat stomach.

Haley nodded, Peyton's tone had flickered once or twice which she usually did when she was trying to hide something. They had been friends a while now, close friends and she could tell when Peyton was uncomfortable or bending the truth but she wasn't going to push it. Maybe she was wrong though, maybe Peyton's tone flickered because she was nervous, nervous about the decision she was going to have to make. "Well…whatever you want to do, I'm here for you Peyton." She smiled gently at her.

Peyton smiled and nodded, "Thank you Haley…" She looked down, she felt slightly guilty that she had lied to Haley, but she couldn't tell her the truth after all Haley was Lucas's best friend and in the end, she didn't want to put Haley in the middle.

-----

Peyton walked into her bedroom from the bathroom, Snow Patrol's song Chocolate was playing in the background. She was dressed in a green thin strapped top and a white ra-ra skirt, showing off her thin long legs. Her black bikini bra straps hung off of her shoulders as she bent down and placed one foot into her black strapped sandals. She picked up the other sandal and walked over to the door and leant against the door frame, lifting her foot high into the air to place the other sandal on….and that was it. She was ready, ready for the beach party. Slowly she turned and made her way over to the full length mirror resting against her bedroom and wall and looked at herself. "Back of your mind" She said, leaning in closer applying some lip balm to her lips.

Haley appeared in the doorway, she was dressed in a pair of three quarter length jeans and a blue strapped top, she sighed, "Are you sure you want to do this Peyton?"

Peyton turned and her looked at Haley and smiled, "Yes…I need normality right now, and what's more normal than going to one of Brooke's parties. Besides, if I didn't show she'd figure something was up and I'm just not ready to her yet, or anyone." She said, she was bending the truth again. She didn't want to tell Brooke because of the whole Lucas factor and all of the drama that would bring up. No, she thought to herself. Back of your mind, tonight is not about this…it's about normality, but then she smirked to herself. **Besides, how long is it going to be before I can wear a ra-ra skirt again? **Wait, did that meant she was leaning more towards keeping the baby…No, back of your mind Peyton, she told herself. Sighing, she looked at Haley "Are you sure you wanna go though?" She repeated the question back to Haley.

Haley took in a deep breath and nodded, "Yes." She knew that Nathan was going to be there so she had to go, she wasn't ready to let go of Nathan or their marriage. "But I think we should have like a signal when we want to leave, like a nod or something."

Peyton laughed, "A nod? Hmm, too common." She paused and thought about it trying to think of a good sound or look to make, one that wouldn't be too obvious to other people but one that the two of them would recognise. "How about we just think about it on the way there…" Peyton turned and walks towards Haley, resting her hands on her shoulders as she pushed her out of the bedroom, leaving the music playing.

------

There wasn't a cloud in the sky while the sun began to set. The music was already blaring from the DJ's speakers and loads of seniors were already on the beach, chatting away to one another, dancing with one another and Nathan and his friends had set up a soccer pitch on the beach and had began to play a game, using jackets as goal posts. Tim and another guy were walking down the steps from the pier onto the beach, carrying a silver cased keg. They placed it down next to three identical kegs. Tim ran over to Nathan and nodded, "Dude, we got the keg from the basement of your beach house."

Nathan nodded and looked over to the keg, which his father had actually bought for him. Nathan laughed, "Yeah well, the old man is trying to keep me on side so he figured what better way than indulge me." He laughed and got a pat on the back from a guy walking past. The truth was, Nathan knew exactly why Dan was trying to keep him on side, to keep him away from his mother and more importantly away from Haley. He sighed and looked across the beach and watched as Brooke made her way over to the guys. She was dressed in a black bikini with a pink sarong wrapped around her waist, showing off her Californian tanned boy. He nodded to her.

Brooke nodded back to Nathan and stopped, looking around. The beach was already filled with the majority of the senior class. Everyone knew that when she threw a party, it was the place to be for the next few days at school it would the hottest topic of conversation. She slowly made her way across the sand and headed over to he DJ booth and smiled at Mouth who was behind, DJ'ing and then to Lucas who was standing next to him. She and Lucas hadn't really spent much time together this past week, even though they had said they were going to make a go of things…it seemed neither of them really put in the effort. "Keep the music upbeat, Mouth."

"Sure thing, Brooke." Mouth nodded to her, watching as she walked away to do the meet and greets. He couldn't help but stare at her body, it was no secret that he admired her, everyone thought Brooke Davis was just another self absorbed cheerleader but he knew differently, she was sweet and kind, well she had to be because she was nice to him and he wasn't exactly Mr. Popular. Mouth turned and looked at Lucas, whom he envied for mostly everything. "Hey if you wanna head off and play soccer or be with Brooke, I'm fine here…" He said, he felt as though Lucas was hanging around to keep him company, because he pitied him.

Lucas nodded to Mouth, "I'm fine here Mouth." He smiled at his friend, the truth was he wasn't particularly in the mood to play soccer with Nathan. The brothers hadn't exactly been that friendly to one another since Nathan got back from high flyers and he didn't really feel in the mood to play devoted boyfriend to Brooke, when it was clearly the last thing she wanted…and he wanted. He stopped midway through his rant as he looked up onto the pier and saw Peyton and Haley walking with one another…which was strange, especially give their last encounter.

------

_The summer had just gotten under way, the school had only been out for a couple of days and he had already been roped into playing bus boy at his mom's café. It wasn't that bad really, he didn't mind pitching in but with Haley being home it made it even better. They would just hang out after hours and talk about anything and everything, the way the used to…before basketball, before Nathan had entered the scene. Lucas sighed and picked up a chair, placing it above the table. He looked over at Haley, who had just turned the sign on the door to closed, "You know you're more than welcome to come to the movie with me and Peyton." He said, watching her. _

_Haley turned and looked at him, raising her brow. "Right, what fun that would be." She said sarcastically. "Between the three of us, we have three broke hearts, a broken marriage, a deceased parent and…well, you're life really doesn't suck that much compared to Peyton and mines." She said, walking back towards the counter. _

_Lucas shook his head and walked over to another table, stacking the chair on top of the table. He turned and looked at the door and saw Peyton walk in, he smiled gently at her. "Hey, I'm almost ready." _

_Peyton nodded and looked around. She paused seeing Haley, "I'll just wait outside." Peyton turned around and left the café, doing exactly what she said she would do. She waited outside. _

_Lucas nodded to himself, not reading too much into it. She was probably just tired or something. _

_Haley sighed and threw her apron over the counter, "Well I'm done…"_

_Lucas nodded, "Me too." He walked over to the door, joined by Haley. Opening the door, he watched as Haley walked through and followed, closing the door behind him. He turned and looked at Peyton, "I invited Haley to come with us, hope that's cool."_

_Peyton turned and looked at Haley and faked a smile. "Sure, whatever." _

_Haley sighed, her week had already been filled with trying to get the lease back for her old apartment and trying to get in contact with her travelling parents, she was tired and annoyed, "Is it me or is there a little hostility in the air?" She asked simply, looking directly at Peyton. It sounded a little more harsh than she had intended_

_Lucas looked from one girl to the other, confused. _

_Peyton kept walking, not bothering to look at Haley when she simply responded, "It's not you." _

_Haley stopped in her tracks and folded her arms, "Well then what's with the ice queen treatment?" She and Peyton had always gotten along, well not always but since they had been friends. It was Peyton who actually made her feel more welcome in a group that she felt like she didn't fit into. _

"_Hmm, so in other words why am I being a bitch?" Peyton asked_

_Lucas just looked at each girl, he didn't know what to say and he certainly didn't wanna take any sides, so he just stayed silent. _

"_In other words, yes…" Haley sighed, "If it's because of what happened between me and Nathan, well it's good that you're sticking up for Nathan and all…but really, it's none of your business." _

_Peyton shook her head, "Yeah it is partly about how you screwed Nathan over." She walked up to Haley, and stared down at her. "But more than that, it's about how you just left…the way you left…" She continued, "You didn't even have the decency to call any of your friends to let the know what was going on…" The truth was, she annoyed at Haley for just taking off. "But I guess its true, people always leave right?" Peyton sighed and looked at Lucas, "You know what I'm not really in the mood to watch a movie now, I'll see you later." She turned and walked away from the two of them. _

_Haley sighed, defeated. She knew that when she left she had hurt people but she hadn't really considered how much she had hurt them. She knew that Peyton had an issue with abandonment and why shouldn't she, people always did seem to abandon her, and now she had done exactly the same thing. _

_---------_

Three hours later and the party was still going. The sky had completely darkened, with moon shining brightly making a pretty reflection over the sea. People were dancing in front the of the DJ booth, guys and girls rubbing their lust filled teenage bodies up against one another. Nathan and the guys were still playing their game of soccer, and were being watched by a group of girls cheering them on. Haley walked over to the DJ booth and stood beside Lucas, "UH, look at those girls…they're practically naked and throwing themselves at him." She said referring to Nathan.

Lucas curiously looked over to where the soccer game was taking place and noticed the group of girls gathered around watching. "They're in their bathing suits." He said, looking back at Haley. "And I don't think Nathan is paying any attention to them anyways." He was trying to reassure her, he hadn't been watching the soccer game, he had been watching a certain blonde cheerleader who was talking to his girlfriend. "Hey…uh, do you know why Peyton wasn't in school this afternoon?" Lucas turned and looked at Haley

"Uhh…" She paused, what was she supposed to say? Peyton hadn't told her not to tell anyone else that she wasn't pregnant, but she also knew that Peyton wouldn't want her to tell anyone else. The way she had spoken about not wanting Brooke to find out, jumped to her mind. Wouldn't Brooke be more understanding of the situation? They were after all best friends and Brooke probably had more knowledge about pregnancies and false alarms.

"Haley…"

Haley turned and looked at Lucas, realising she was thinking too much and not saying enough. "Yeah, she wasn't feeling well so I took her home." That was simple and it was the truth, okay it was a slightly distorted version of the truth. Why was he so interested in why Peyton was off at school? She looked at Lucas and then turned and looked at Peyton and Brooke, where his attention had escaped to. "So, how's the love life?" She watched as Lucas turned back and looked at her a little startled. "I heard about you and Brooke, being none-exclusive, that's gotta hurt."

Lucas sighed, "Not really."

Haley frowned, confused. "Not really?" She turned and looked back at Brooke and Peyton and then back to Lucas. "Not really…wait, I don't get it. You pinned over Brooke the whole summer and now she's back and you two are dating none-exclusively and it doesn't bother you?"

"I didn't pine!"

"Oh you pined, my friend!" She said honestly. "Especially towards the end of summer, you were even more broodier than ever and I didn't know that was even possible."

"Yeah well, I wasn't brooding over Brooke." Lucas looked down at Haley, he hadn't told anyone about what had happened between him and Peyton over the last three weeks of summer. That's why he was more, broodier than ever, because he had once again found himself in between Brooke and Peyton and once again had found himself wanting Peyton more than wanting Brooke, and it annoyed him because Peyton had rejected him before and he didn't want to face that rejection again.

"Well then who were you-" Haley watched as Lucas turned and looked back at Brooke and Peyton, she leaned in closer to him as she turned her body trying to see who he was watching and who he wasn't…and then it clicked. He wasn't looking at Brooke, he was looking at Peyton. She pulled back, shocked. "Wait – wh-wh-what?" Haley stuttered… "You and Peyton?" She said a little a more softly.

Lucas nodded and sighed. He had wanted to speak to someone for so long about the torment he was feeling inside, he couldn't tell Peyton because she was obviously avoiding him after what had happened and he couldn't tell anyone else because they would be judgemental, **oh so you cheated on Brooke again with Peyton?** Is all he could hear in his head, when the truth was, he didn't cheat on Brooke because he hadn't slept with Peyton when Brooke and he were together. "Haley you can't tell anyone…" He said looking back at her.

Haley covered her hands with her face, everything was making sense now. So that was why Peyton hadn't wanted Brooke to find out about her being pregnant, it was about Lucas. She should have known, when it came down to those two girls it was always about Lucas. "Oh Lucas," She sighed, her hands still covering her face. "You don't know what you've done." She took her hands away from her face and saw Lucas looking at her, confused. "I have to …go." Haley walked away from Lucas, she couldn't stay there…otherwise she would tell him, tell him what Peyton should tell him. Haley stopped and looked over at Brooke and Peyton, the two of them were laughing. Haley sighed gently to herself, and decided that she would just walk away for now; she didn't want to bother Peyton because she seemed happy so instead she headed up the stairs and down the pier, away from the party.

Nathan stopped midway through his soccer game and watched as Haley walked away from the party, she looked upset. Should he follow her? They weren't together anymore, but he still loved and cared about her and it hurt him to see her looking upset. He turned and looked at the guys, "I'm gonna get a drink." He started to make his way across the sand, towards the keg but was confronted by a half naked, smiling Brooke. "Wow…"

Brooke smirked and looked herself up and down, "Thank you." She looked up at him; his blue eyes seemed to be extra lit tonight. "So uh, what do you think of the party?"

Nathan looked around and saw everyone having a good time, "I think it's a hit." He nodded looking back down to Brooke and smiled gently at her, "So…we're friends right?" He watched as she nodded and he smirked, "Well how about a dance?"

Brooke looked up at Nathan, they were friends…they had gotten closer over the summer. She looked back at Lucas, who wasn't even looking at her. He hadn't looked at her all night; well she didn't think he had because she hadn't really looked at him. In all honesty, she had completely forgotten he was there…and that wasn't a good thing. She turned and looked back up at Nathan, "Well since we're friends and you're not hitting on me, I guess we can dance." She turned around and headed over to the DJ booth, with Nathan following her. She stopped and turned around, smiling up at Nathan. She leaned up, wrapping her arms loosely around his neck and they began to dance.

Peyton had made her way down the beach, closer to the water. She took off her strappy sandals and held them by the straps in her hands as she walked along the wet sand, digging her feet in deeper with each step. She stopped and turned, looking out to the sea. Tonight had been nice, like old times. Her and Brooke had just hung out, she hadn't thought about the pregnancy once…but now she was alone again and…

"Hey"

Peyton turned around and saw Lucas walking up behind her, well she was alone. "Hey…great party huh?" She said. She was finding it increasingly harder to make normal conversation with Lucas, for many reasons; the thought of them in her bed having sex together, the thought of the baby growing inside of her.

Lucas nodded, resting his hands inside of his jean pockets. "Yeah…"He looked back towards the party and saw Brooke and Nathan dancing together, and it didn't bother him at all. He should have been jealous, but he wasn't…Instead, he turned and looked at Peyton and smiled, "Do you wanna dance?"

Peyton turned and looked at him, stunned. He was asking her to dance, in plain view of the party…in plain view of Brooke. She turned her attention back to the party and saw Brooke dancing with Nathan…wait, Brooke and Nathan? They didn't really even like each other and now they were dancing with one another.

"Peyton?"

Peyton turned back and looked at Lucas and gently nodded. She watched as he took a step closer to her. She looked up into his baby blue, welcoming eyes and felt his arms wrap around her waist bringing their bodies closer to one another. She dropped her sandals to the floor and rested her head against his shoulder as they dance slowly with one another, together. This right here, this was perfect.


	5. Say Hello To Mood Swings

**_Author's Note:_**_I just want to say thank you for the reviews, I do love it when people review! Who doesn't, right? Anyways, I'm not exactly sure I like this chapter...it just felt a little, I don't know! Hehe, it just felt different from my other chapters._

* * *

"It's been ten days since we danced. It's been ten days since I was last at school and I wish I could say it's been ten days since I was last sick, but apparently that little throw up session I had then was just my nerves, how do I know that? Well morning sickness has kicked into gear and it's not pretty…but what I really don't understand is why they call it morning sickness when I don't get sick in the morning, no my violent vomiting comes usually at five pm. Yeah, that's right…it's become a pattern…ain't that great!" She said sarcastically as she looked down at her computer desk. Peyton closed her eyes and sat further back in her chair, "Today is my first day back at school…" She opens her eyes and stares at the computer screen, "The principle phoned the house yesterday and I answered. Apparently, my absence has been noted and he urged me to call my father if I was still feeling sick….so what was I supposed to do? Call my dad and ask him to come home and tell him the truth, that I'm pregnant…of course not! My plan, go back to school and the story is I was bed bound with flu like symptoms." Peyton heard a knock and she turned to look at her door, seeing Haley standing in the doorway. "Hey… one sec." Peyton turned back to face the computer and deleted the podcast. She turns back at Haley and smiles, "My way of venting without actually venting."

Haley nodded understanding. During this past week and a half, she had told Peyton that she knew about what happened during the summer between her and Lucas, and that she knew Lucas was the father. She also told Peyton that maybe it would be better if she told Lucas sooner rather than later for one of two reasons; it would be less for Peyton to handle by herself and two, a little more selfishly it meant that she didn't have to lie to Lucas, something she was never good at. "So, are you ready to face the music?" Haley asked in a sarcastic tone.

Peyton rolled her eyes and stood up from the chair, walking over to her bed she picked up her brown school bag and looked at Haley. Peyton let out a deep sigh and nodded. "I guess I have no other choice." Peyton headed out of the bedroom, followed by Haley. During this past week, her mind had kept going back to the dance she shared with Lucas. That dance…that perfect moment, where it felt like all her worries and insecurities were gone. She slowly made her way down the stairs.

Haley followed, raising her brow. "So…any other symptoms other than the obvious?" She tried not to talk about the pregnancy just as Peyton had asked her not to, but she couldn't help but wonder. She had done some reading on the internet over the past week about pregnancy and the stages; all very interesting. "You're in your sixth week right?...So vomiting, mood swings, weight loss.."

Peyton stopped at the bottom of the stairs and turned to look at Haley, she didn't say a word she just frowned.

"Sorry…just curious." Haley smiled, sweetly.

--------

The school was buzzing, literally. The gossip queens were still making their rounds about Brooke's party the previous week. Apparently one of the football players had kissed another football player and someone had caught it on camera, and the picture was flying around school. Brooke walked over to her locker and opened it, placing her bag inside. She shut the locker and turned around, leaning against it watching the new girl who also happened to be the new cheerleader do her own rounds, going around each of the male school athletes flirting with them.

Peyton walked up beside Brooke, who was too engrossed with staring across the hallway to notice that she was there. Peyton turned and looked at her, leaning against the locker, imitating her. "So what are we staring at?"

Brooke sighed, "The new hoe on the cheerleading squad making the rounds…I swear to god that girl gets-" She stopped midway through sentence and turned her head slowly looking at Peyton. "Peyton, you're alive!" She said dramatically but affectionately as she threw her arms around Peyton, hugging her. "When I called you last week, offering to bring over some soup and some eye candy DVD's to help you recuperate and you said no, I thought you must be seriously ill." Brooke pulled back and looked at her friend, tilting her head with concern. "You're okay right?"

Was she okay? Sure, she was okay…pregnant but okay. "I'm fine, really." She said as she turned and looked back across the hallway. "So what's the deal with Red?" She said, referring to the red headed cheerleader.

Brooke sighed and turned back around, leaning back against her locker. "Well with Theresa and …the other girl, I cant remember her name no longer able to cheer… well I had to come up with two replacements…I managed to talk tutor girl into putting on our beautiful school colors again, but I still needed one more cheerleader." Brooke sighed, "So it was open auditions…and with you MIA, I had Bevin and Lucy sitting as my co-captains and well new girl walks in, hoes it up and Bevin and Lucy were all like" She paused, "OH my god, she's so great…she's fantastic." She said in a high pitched voice. "So I was over-ruled…" Brooke turned and looked at Peyton and sighed, "Her names Rachel Gattina aka biggest slut around….during practice she flirted with the entire basketball team…and Mouth! She can flirt with the team, sure whatever…who cares, we all do it right? But flirting with Mouth, he's too sweet and innocent to fend off a trashy, slutty…" Brooke tilted her head, watching as Rachel made her way over to Lucas and began to flirt with him.

Haley walked over to Peyton and Brooke and sighed, looking over to where they were looking. She sighed, "Brooke come on…let it go." This past week, Brooke had made it a point to give Rachel the Brooke Davis welcome, which included the cold shoulder and sarcastic comments. "She's not that bad." She turned back around and watched as Nathan walked over to his locker, which was beside Lucas's. She tilted her head simultaneously with Brooke, watching as Rachel began to openly flirt with Nathan. "Ohhhh!" She muttered.

"You were saying, tutor girl!" Brooke shook her head.

Peyton would have found it funny that Haley and Brooke were sharing the same look of mortification if she weren't feeling completely and utterly jealous. That's right, she knew the feeling well. She felt that way whenever Lucas was with Brooke, although it was less of a feeling then because they Brooke didn't flaunt her relationship with him…but the new girl, the new cheerleader was flaunting it like a busty girl at Hooters. Peyton rolled her eyes and walked across the hallway, over to her locker. She opened it and put her brown bag inside and began to dig through it for her books.

Lucas turned and saw Peyton standing a few feet away from him. He hadn't seen her in over a week, not since they had danced together at the beach. He had missed talking to her, he had missed seeing her. Okay, he thought to himself…just go over there. Slowly he made his way away from Rachel and Nathan and headed over to Peyton. "Hey…" He looked at her, "How are you feeling?" He would have gone over to see her, to see how she was if it wasn't for Haley. She told him that Peyton didn't want any visitors, but he figured that Peyton just didn't want to see him, especially after that dance, their dance. Things were so complicated between them, always have been but in that moment of dancing with her, all of their issues seemed to disappear. It was just perfect, the aftermath however wasn't. He had wanted to talk to Peyton so much, he called her and she didn't answer…maybe it was true, maybe she was ill but more than likely, Peyton was just avoiding him. He knew her well enough now to know how she acted, and avoidance was classic Peyton Sawyer.

Peyton sighed, "Just peachy" She said sarcastically. Opps, she hadn't meant to say that at all, let alone in that kind of tone. Just keep going through the bag and try to be nice, she told herself. She turned and looked out of the corner of her eye and saw Nathan and Rachel making their way over to her. Great, this is just great. Try and be nice, just try and be nice.

"Hey Peyton, how ya feeling?" Nathan asked.

"Oh, you're Peyton?" Rachel added. So this was the infamous Peyton Sawyer she had heard so much about. That was the good thing about a new school, people were always ready to hand out the gossip and she had heard so much about the blonde curly haired girl standing in front of her. Apparently, she had dated both of the Scott brothers, impressive.

"No, he called me that because my name is Betty! What do you think?" Oh another sarcastic comment from Peyton Sawyer. She thought it was kind of funny, usually she would just brood about, not really saying what was on her mind…but today for some reason, everything she was thinking was coming straight out of her mouth. It was like word vomit. So much for being nice to the new girl…

"I think you need to take it down a notch with the hostility." Rachel said blankly. Okay, so maybe Brooke Davis wasn't the biggest bitch in school, maybe it was Peyton Sawyer. Rachel rolled her eyes, she was used to hearing girls talk about her behind her back or giving her the evil stares, usually it was because they were jealous but she had only just met this girl and already she was a punching bag for sarcastic comments.

Peyton sighed and turned to look at Rachel. Up close the girl was pretty, which only added fuel to her fire of jealousy. Pretty girl flirting with her ex boyfriend and the father of her unborn child, yes…the hostility was there. "Sure, I'll take the hostility down a notch when you take the whole being a hoe down a notch. Kay?" Peyton said mockingly. She sighed and turned back to her locker. Who exactly did this new girl think she was, coming in and flirting her way through the school? She threw her books out of her bag, pulled her brown bag out of her locker and slammed the locker door shut. Turning back, she looked at Nathan and Lucas. "And you two really need to get a clue. This new girl is all over you two like a rash and you just stand there and act like nothing's happening, while you have a girlfriend and you have a wife!" She sighed turning her head to look at Lucas, she expected more from him. So was this pregnancy talking? Was it the mood swings? She walked past the three of them, walking past Brooke and Haley in the process. The guilt was already settling in and it didn't feel good, in fact she felt completely miserable.

Brooke shook her head and laughed, "Oh yeah, old school Peyton Sawyer is back." She said to Haley, as she raised an arm in the air to high five her. "No high five's okay then..." She looked back over to Rachel and smirked. After a week of having said nothing relatively mean to Rachel, which, had taken a lot of self control…after a week of having to watch Rachel flirt with the entire basketball team, with Nathan… she was happy that someone had finally taken the new girl down. Sure she would have liked to do it herself, given a couple more weeks watching Rachel act like the biggest hoe in the school and she probably would have, but Peyton had beaten her to the punch. It was sweet.

-----------

It was the last class of the day, which would have been a relief if she didn't have cheerleading practice after school. No doubt her little outburst with Rachel was making the gossip rounds; everyone was probably asking why Peyton had gone super-bitch on the new girl in 0-60 in less than five minutes of having met her. She looked down at her sketch…it was of two hands, with a pill in each. She had been watching a lot of movies over the last week, to try and keep her mind off of the whole pregnancy thing…and last night it was the Matrix, and the scene where Neo is offered the two pills had stuck in her mind. He was given two choices. She had two choices, she could take blue pill and stay in wonderland or she could take the red pill and see how fall the rabbit hole goes. Wonderland meant she would have abortion and the rabbit hole meant she would have the baby…hmm.

Lucas looked up from his desk and looked ahead. Peyton was sat two rows ahead of him, all day he had been trying to figure out what had happened earlier? Peyton wasn't usually so catty, but today she had just been so un-Peyton-like. In first period, she had completely blown him off when he had tried to talk to her…at lunch; she didn't sit with Brooke and the other cheerleaders. He just couldn't figure out what was going on…she hadn't been the same since that night, when they were together. He sighed and looked down at his desk, closing his eyes.

_The front door to Peyton's house swung open, Lucas and Peyton stepped inside, their bodies pressing against one another, as though they were glued together. His right hand was pressed against her cheek, supporting them as the kissed passionately; his left hand pressed resting on her hip, keeping her body close to his. He moved his head, his kisses moving from her mouth to her the bottom of her ear, to her neck. _

_Peyton let out a deep sigh, that kiss in the street had been the starting point. She felt his lips brush against her neck, it felt good…it felt good to be wanted again, to feel needed. "Lu-" She was out of breath because they hadn't stopped kissing, it was like she had just now able to come up for air. "Lucas…are you sure you wanna…" _

_Lucas pulled back and looked into Peyton's emerald colored eyes, he knew exactly what she was going to ask, "Do I wanna do this?" He looked at her and shook his head, disbelievingly. Of course he wanted to do this, he was about to have sex with the one girl he had always wanted. "Yeah…I do." He said, as though he were also out of breath. _

_Peyton smiled and grabbed a hold of his t-shirt, pulling him closer to her as she kissed him roughly, on the mouth…which gave him an opening. He moved her back so that she was pressed against the wall. Their kisses becoming more passionately rough…_

The bell rang and Lucas opened his eyes. He frowned and looked ahead at Peyton. Enough was enough, no more pretending…no more hiding. He stood up and walked over to Peyton's desk, stepping in front of it. "Peyt..."

Peyton looked up from the desk; she was off in her own little world. She saw Lucas standing in front of her and was confused. Did the bell ring ? She looked around and watched as students began to leave the classroom. She turned and looked back up to Lucas…

"We need to talk."


	6. This Is My Confession

We need to talk? Peyton was rolling those words over in her mind, processing them. Yes they did need to talk; they needed to talk about a lot of thing, the main topic of conversation that was in her mind was about how he could possibly let Rachel, the new girl also now nicknamed skanky ass hoe, flirt with him so obviously in front of his supposable girlfriend. It wasn't the most relevant thing they needed to talk about obviously, but it was the one that had stuck with her all day. Seeing Rachel flirt with Lucas earlier that day had just wound her up the wrong way, making her feel more irritable than just the pregnancy mood swings. Was now the time and place to talk though, no…so just blow him off Peyton, she thought to herself. "Um we do?" She asked, acting dumb. She stood up from her desk and picked up her brown school bag and rested in on her shoulder and began to take a step forward to walk out of the situation, but just as luck would have it…he stepped in front of her. She tilted her head, looking up at him. "Is this about earlier?"

Lucas frowned, of course this was about earlier, "Yeah, what was that all about?" He asked, coolly. He hadn't been able to get that scene out of his head; Peyton yelling at him for letting Rachel supposedly flirt with him. "You know what, I don't wanna know…" During the last period of school, his mind kept going back to the summer and their talks, their dance at the beach… to when they had sex…and how perfect all of that had been. "You know I don't wanna know what that was about, I just don't like being accused of something I haven't done." He was getting a little petulant, maybe it was being accused of letting some girl come on to him or maybe and more likely it was because of all that had happened between them, all that they shared and they still were tip toeing around subjects with one another.

Peyton scoffed, "Right…something you didn't do? Uh, hello…new girl was flirting with you and to make it worse, she was doing it on purpose in front of" She paused, she was going to say me…but she couldn't, she shouldn't. She wasn't the one dating Lucas, so technically she had no right to be jealous. "Brooke…you know, you're girlfriend?"

Lucas looked at her confused, she hadn't heard? Brooke hadn't told her? Haley hadn't told her. "Brooke and I broke up last week…" After the party, Lucas went up to Brooke and the two of them had both decided that things weren't working. They weren't making any effort to be together, to spend any time together…he knew why he wasn't making any effort, it was because of Peyton…but it had confused him at the time why Brooke just agreed? It still confused him, but it didn't matter because he was single…free to be with who ever he wanted to be with. "Besides, even if Brooke and I were together, why would it bother you so much?" It came out a little wrong, he wanted to entice her to confess that she either did have feelings for him or she didn't, he needed to know one way or another…

Still a little shocked from that little newsflash he had just given her, she closed her eyes and shook her head. She opened her eyes and tilted her head at him and quickly responded, "Uh…because she's my best friend and I don't like seeing her get hurt." Quick response and fairly believable, she told herself. "Whatever, you know what…whatever you do or don't do is none of my business." Mood swings, making a comeback. She sighed and pushed herself past Lucas and headed out of the classroom.

Lucas shook his head watching her leave, not exactly what he intended to happen when he said they needed to talk…but what did he expect, that he would get a confession from Peyton Sawyer about how much she loves him? He was just fooling himself, Peyton was again just making it clear that what had happened between the two of them didn't mean what he wanted it to mean.

----------

Haley walked up to Peyton in the girls dressing room, she hadn't seen her since the morning, since Peyton had gone all mean girl on Rachel. "Are you ready for Nazi Brooke?" Haley asked, she wasn't being mean by calling Brooke that because its what everyone had been calling Brooke lately during cheerleading practice.

Peyton put her foot into her white sneaker and looked up at Haley and laughed, "It's been a while since I last heard that!" She stood up and gathered her blonde curly locks together and tied them back in a high pony tail, "You can always tell when competition time is coming up because Brooke kicks it into overdrive and goes all out in practice. Although the Nazi is kicking in a little earlier than last year" Peyton smiled at Haley and started to walk towards the changing room doors.

"Yeah, well she made a speech last week about wanting this to be the best year ever and wanting to beat Claire, someone at nationals." Haley followed Peyton but stopped behind her, "Peyton…are you sure you should be going all Bring it On in your state?" What better way was there to put it? She didn't want to say, did she think she should be going to practice being pregnant and all because she had told Peyton that she wouldn't say the word pregnancy or baby in the school hallways, and the walls were pretty thin this end of school so anyone could be listening. So it was being discreet.

"Haley thanks for the concern," She said honestly. It was nice to have a friend looking out for her well being, but she had just wanted to forget about it for as long as possible, or at least until she had decided what she was going to do "but I'll be fine! You shouldn't worry so much!" Peyton opened the door to the changing room and walked out. She made her way down the corridor and into the gymnasium, where the cheerleaders were already gathered stretching and the basketball team were gathered doing lay ups. She sighed and looked at Lucas, he looked so good playing basketball. As she turned her attentions away from Lucas, she saw Rachel walking up to her…great.

Rachel walked up to Peyton and saw the mousey haired smart girl walk up behind her, she couldn't remember her name. Was it Helen? It didn't matter because the other girl walked past and headed off to join the other cheerleaders. "So…" She said looking back at Peyton, "Been working on an apology?" She didn't like it when girls were so catty towards her, usually it was the other way around but goldilocks had beaten her to the punch, and that just down right pissed her off.

Peyton tilted her head, "Let me see…" She looked up at the ceiling, pretending to think. She sighed and shrugged her shoulders, "I guess not." She smirked at her, she would have said sorry, she had actually intended on saying sorry for being such a bitch but that apology went right out of the window when skanky ass hoe made the first move. Peyton walked past Rachel, but felt a push on the back of her shoulder. She turned around and looked at Rachel. "What the hell was that?"

"What?" Rachel played dumb and smirked back to Peyton.

Peyton turned back around again and began to make her way towards the cheerleaders, when she felt another shove come from behind her. She stumbled forward slightly, almost falling over. She turned around and looked at Rachel, "Seriously?"

Rachel smirked again and shrugged and made her way past Peyton, but not before bumping into her shoulder. Obviously she wasn't going to be able to do her usual bitchy comeback, so maybe it was a little physical intimidation that would get goldilocks off of her back.

Peyton shook her head, enough was enough…she extended her arms and pushed Rachel from behind, not too hard but obviously hard enough to make the new girl fall over, because that's exactly what she did…Rachel fell over and made a dramatic scene in doing so.

"Miss Sawyer…"

Peyton closed her eyes and turned around, standing there was the gym teacher Miss Brown, who over the past years hadn't really taken a liking to her, apparently she had attitude problems. "Miss Brown…" She smiled, gently…okay, time for some sweet talking Peyton, "That's not what it looked like…" She said trying to get herself out of the immediate trouble she knew she was going to be in.

Rachel sat up on the floor and looked up at the gym teacher and then Peyton, "Right? You've been on my case all day, ask anyone they all saw her bitch at me the hallway this morning…" She was good, she was better than good. She knew exactly how to turn the tables on an opponent, and her opponent was Peyton Sawyer. She turned and watched as Brooke, Haley and the other cheerleaders slowly gathered around them…attention is good, she turned and looked over to the basketball team, all of them were watching the commotion…male attention was even better.

"What's going on?" Brooke asked, looking from Miss Brown to Peyton.

Miss Brown sighed, "Miss Sawyer apparently has a vendetta against Miss Gattina and decided that the best way to handle this would be to knock her on the floor, isn't that right Miss Sawyer?" Miss Brown looked at Peyton and waited for an answer. Typical of the girl, she thought.

Brooke without thinking laughed. She covered her mouth with her hand and shook her head that was going to lose her some brownie points with Miss Brown.

"Well Miss Davis, since you might find it amusing with Miss Sawyer banned from cheerleading for the week" She said sarcastically, "Better yet, you might find it hilarious that some of your fellow team mates" She referred to the cheerleading squad "Suggested that you delegate some responsibility because of your recent attitude" She had heard the nickname the Nazi and it didn't please her, not one bit "…now, I was going to suggest that you and Miss Sawyer take on the duty of Co-Captains but, perhaps Miss Gattina might be better suited for the task."

"WHAT?" Brooke screeched, what the hell was happening? What did Miss Brown think she was doing? Brooke turned and looked down at Rachel; this was all of her doing. She had seen Rachel in Miss Brown's office earlier this week, she wasn't sure what they were talking about but she figured it was just the usual crap, but it wasn't. The new girl was scheming to get her hands on Brooke's title. "You can't be serious?"

Miss Brown sighed, "Too much drama ladies." She shook her head and looked at Peyton, "And perhaps now Miss Sawyer you will think before acting."

Peyton shook her head in disbelief, "I didn't even start this." She sighed, "But you're right, I will think before acting." She said sarcastically. She watched as Miss Brown nodded obviously satisfied with that answer before heading out of the gymnasium. She turned and looked back down at Rachel, who was still soaking up all the sympathy from the other cheerleaders. "So new co-captain, here's me thinking before acting…I quit." She shook her head and stormed out of the gymnasium.

Brooke turned and watched Peyton walk out of the gymnasium, the only other time she had seen Peyton storm out of practice so mad was when Peyton had gone all psycho junior year. She sighed and looked back to Rachel and eyed up some of the other cheerleaders. "So much for loyalty!" She said, she looked at two cheerleaders in particular, she knew had grassed her up from being so strong willed about getting everything right. She smirked, she could follow Peyton and quit but that wouldn't resolve anything, so instead she was working up a plan in her mind. "So…how about we get back to stretching." She said, watching as the rest of the cheerleaders scatter off, not wanting to make Brooke upset. Brooke turned back and looked down at Rachel, "Play the sympathy card all you want, but all you've done today is made yourself an enemy." She said referring to herself, "Let's see how long you last." Brooke turned and walked away.

Rachel watched Brooke walk away, so that was two girls in school she now hated and was now going to get revenge on.

----------

With cheerleading and basketball practice over the girls were warming themselves down so that they wouldn't ache in the morning. Brooke and Haley stood up from the floor and slowly made their way across the gymnasium. Brooke smirked and walked up behind Nathan and Lucas, who were also making their way out of the gymnasium. She lifted her hand high in the air and playfully hit Nathan on the back of the head.

Nathan turned his head and saw Haley walking beside him, a few feet away. He turned his head further and saw Brooke walking up behind him, "Huh, I should have known." He said with a smirk, "You just can't leave me alone, can ya Davis?" The truth was, he had been thinking about Brooke a lot lately, ever since they danced at Brooke's beach party. He felt conflicted, Brooke was fun and they had been getting on really well lately and he had even started to feel something more for her, more than just friendship…but then his thoughts would go back to Haley, his now ex-wife. He was still in love with her, but he was also still mad at her. Brooke…Haley, just too confusing to think about. "So what was with Peyton earlier?" He asked, genuinally concerned.

Brooke shrugged, "New girl was just winding her up the wrong way…actually she's been winding everyone up the wrong way lately." She said, honestly.

Nathan nodded, "Yeah, but she looks hot doing it!" He said half joking, half not.

Brooke rolled her eyes and pushed Nathan through the double doors into the corridor.

Haley stopped behind them and turned around and looked at Lucas, who was approaching her. She was so concerned about Peyton that it had taken her mind off of Nathan and their whole drama, which was good…kind of. "Luke…I think you should talk to Peyton." She couldn't stay out of the way anymore, Peyton was clearly refusing to deal with what was going on, and she couldn't convince Peyton to call her dad or even go see someone to talk to.

Lucas shrugged, "Already tried that." He stepped past Haley, and walked through the set of double doors. His mind hadn't left Peyton, all through practice all he could think about was her. Their conversation in the classroom just kept coming back to him, why had Peyton been so defensive? She wouldn't have been defensive unless there was something there, right?

Haley watched Lucas walk away through the corridor and she turned back on her heels and looked around the gymnasium, it was empty well practically. Rachel was coming in her direction. She had tried to convince Brooke to be nicer to Rachel last week, since the hostility was so obvious but after this morning, after seeing Rachel flirt with Nathan, the gloves were off.

Rachel sighed, great was the smart girl waiting for her? She had heard that smart girl and the very hot Nathan Scott were once a thing, a thing being married…but the girl couldn't handle Nathan and took off to sing or something, whatever. It meant that Nathan was fair game and she had eyes for him, well him and the rest of the team. "Helen" She smiled

Haley sighed, "It's Haley." What was it with people getting her name wrong? At least Brooke had come up with a nickname, a nickname she was actually fond of. Helen? What was that?

"Whatever…" She pushed her way past Haley and headed out of the gymnasium, Helen, Haley, loser…they all meant the same thing. Rachel stopped outside of the girls changing room and saw Lucas Scott ahead, "Hey sexy." She said, smiling in his direction. "Nice jump shot." She said, referring to having watched him play basketball in the gymnasium.

Lucas was looking at the leader board that was posted up outside of the guys changing room when he heard Rachel; he turned and looked at her. Okay, so maybe she was obviously flirting with him…not good. He wasn't interested, but he didn't want to be mean so instead he just nodded to her before heading into the guys changing room.

------------

Lucas had decided to walk home, it was a nice night after all and he needed to think about things so he declined a ride from Rachel and had just opted to walk and think and all he could think about was Peyton, he was trying to connect the dots. One minute she seemed like she could be interested in him but the next she was showing him the cold shoulder. It was like when the first met, only worse because now he really did know her and they were closer. He looked ahead, towards his house and saw the outline of a figure sitting on his porch. As he approached the house for a clearer view, he pulled out the earphones from his ears. "Peyton?"

Peyton stood up from the porch, she had been waiting there for him. She didn't want to knock just in case Karen answered and if Karen had answered then she would just going to bottle out of what she came here to do, to tell Lucas the truth. "You were right…we do need to talk." She said

Lucas nodded as he stepped within arms reach of Peyton, "Okay, how about we go-"

"No…" She interrupted him, she didn't want to tell him but she had to. Haley was right, she needed to share this with someone and who better than the guy who's half responsible for the mess she's in, she didn't blame him…no, it wasn't his fault. They both had wanted it, she still wanted him…but now, with everything it was all confusing. She shook her head, "Uh – I have to go." She rushed past him and began to walk away.

"Peyton!" He chased after her, she had come to his house to talk to him. It didn't matter what it was about, all that mattered was that she was there and she was ready to open up, well …was. He ran in front of her and stopped her from going ahead of him. He paused and looked down into her beautiful emerald colored eyes. "Talk to me…" He urged, he wanted her…

"I'm pregnant."


	7. One Step Forward or Two Steps Back?

So there it was, out in the open. Peyton was kicking herself inside, half an hour earlier she had found herself sitting on his porch waiting for him. She wasn't sure what she was going to say to him, would she tell him she was pregnant or would she simply confess that she was still in love with him? Half an hour later and she had answered her own question. Upon seeing him approach her, she should have just bolted there and then and not hesitate…but she did, she hesitated and that's why they were there, standing opposite one another…neither saying anything. Hmm, she had rendered Lucas Scott into silence? That would have been amusing if she hadn't have just given him the shock of his life; that she was pregnant and obviously it was his. Maybe she should say something, but what would she say? She had contemplated saying straight after the declaration, that it wasn't his but he would see through that straight away. Who else's would it be? Immaculate Conception, sprung to mind…

Lucas was playing back her confession in his mind, Peyton was pregnant. What was he supposed to say to that? What did she want him to say? The memory of Brooke's near pregnancy was also lingering in the back of his mind…although this time he didn't even consider asking whether or not it was his, because he knew it was. There was no doubt in his mind about that; the only question now was; what would happen next? "What does this mean, Peyt?" He asked and quickly regretted, he should have been more specific, and he actually meant what does this mean for us? All he could think about was them, as an us…he was about to say something, but was stopped short by Peyton's answer.

Peyton smirked sarcastically, "That we probably should have used protection and I probably should have gotten the morning after pill." At least she still had her sense of humour, but seriously…What does this mean? He had to be joking, she was pregnant, knocked up and he was asking what does this mean? Typical friggen' guy, she thought to herself although that was probably the hormones speaking.

Lucas closed his eyes, "I meant" He said reopening them, looking at her. He couldn't ask what does this mean for us because that wasn't important right now, well it was but it wasn't as important as Peyton being pregnant…Peyton was pregnant, it was still sinking in. "Where do we go from here?"

Peyton shrugged her shoulders and shook her head, her blonde curly locks swaying, "I really don't know." She said honestly. She had been contemplating what to do ever since she found out, "But…I thought you should know…well actually Haley thought you should know," She said quickly rambling, probably not the best thing to say; dropping Haley in it, confessing that Haley knew about the pregnancy, his best friend knew and didn't tell him because she had asked her not to. She sighed, "I just…" Looking down at the floor, she let out a deep sigh shaking her head once more, "I can't go through this alone Luke…" She said looking back up at him, her eyes being to well with tears. "I need you." It wasn't like her to confess that she needed anyone, blame it on the hormones later on.

Lucas didn't say anything, what could he say? He took a few steps closer to her, cutting the distance down between them. He raised his hands to her face, gently stroking down her cheeks. She had said she needed him, Peyton had said she needed him. He knew that was the wrong thing to focus on, but he wanted her. "Whatever we decide," He paused, maybe that was wrong… "Whatever you want to do," He said correcting himself, he did of course have an input but at the end of the day it was Peyton's body, he couldn't force her to do anything she didn't want to do. "I'll be here." He said looking down into her tear bound eyes.

She felt a tear run down her cheek, she sighed and looked up into his eyes – they were also so comforting, so reassuring. She wrapped her arms around his neck and embraced him, hugging him…holding onto him for dear life.

------------

Haley looked up at the Scott house, from the outside it looked enormous and so intimidating. It had been a while since she was last there, since before she and Nathan had gotten married. Those were the happiest days of her life, being with Nathan…she wished that she could just rewind these past six months, she wished that she could go back in time, if she did she wouldn't have gotten on the bus, she wouldn't have abandoned her marriage. Letting out a deep sigh, she head up the pathway to the front door. Here it goes, she knocked twice waiting for someone to answer the door, someone hopefully being Nathan…hopefully, but not. She watched as the door swung open, and standing there was Dan Scott. "Mr Scott…"

Dan looked at the high school girl standing before her, she had caused so much trouble with this family. "Well if it isn't the late Mrs Scott…" He said accompanied with a smirk, "Now it's just Miss…well I don't actually know." He said honestly.

Haley looked up out of the corner of her eyes, trying to ignore his complete and utter arrogance. "Haley's fine." She said, not wanting to give him anymore information about herself than he already knew. She looked back up at him and tilted her head slightly, "Is Nathan here?"

"You mean you're ex-husband?" He added, "No he's out…on a date actually." He lied, Nathan was upstairs in his bedroom no doubt playing on that damn computer console. He should be concentrating more on his basketball, practising…this was the year that mattered, the scouts were on the look out and it was important for Nathan to keep his game up to the highest possible level. "I'll tell him you dropped by…" He shut the door in her face.

Haley looked off to the side, Nathan was on a date? It was certainly possible, after all he wasn't a married man anymore, he was single and he was the captain of the basketball team…and good looking. How the hell could he be on a date? Haley shook her head and turned around and began to head down the drive way. He was on a date…Nathan was on a date, she turned around and looked back at the house. She frowned, disappointed and angry. She paused, looking up at the house. Nathan's bedroom light was on. Was he in? Or was it just a light that was left on…either way, she had to know. Looking around she saw the drain pipe right outside of his window, yeah right like she was going to be able to climb that. She turned and saw the big tree that stopped about six feet from Nathan's bedroom window. That was do-able, she was good at climbing trees or she was when she was ten. So she made her way over to the tree and began to climb.

Nathan was in his bedroom sitting on the bottom of his bed. He hadn't been in long, he had driven Brooke home as her car was in the garage. In the car they had talked about Peyton's outburst in the gym and how un-like Peyton it was, well it wasn't completely un-like Peyton but it was a little…and then they had talked about summer and how much fun it was hanging out with one another. He felt a stirring of romantic and sexual feelings for her, he had always found her attractive and had often fantasized about the two of them together, as a one off….but he had never thought about the two of them together, in a relationship until now. He shook his head, him and Brooke? No…he couldn't go there, could he?

"Nathan!"

Nathan looked around the room, was he hearing things? He paused the computer game and looked around, hearing a faint cry of his name again. Standing up, he walked over to his bedroom door and looked down the hallway, no it was his dad calling his name. He turned and made his way across the bedroom to the window, he looked through and raised his brow, shocked. Opening his bedroom window, he poked his head out. "Haley?"

Haley was the height level as his bedroom window. They were six feet apart, that was pretty good considering she could have attempted to climb the drain pipe and no doubt made a complete fool of herself and fall on her ass. At least this way, she had the trunk of the tree keeping her up right and the sturdy branches to hold onto. "Hi…" She said slightly out of breath

"What are you doing in a tree?" He asked, confused.

"I tried knocking…" She admitted, "but you're dad said you weren't home…so then I started to walk away and I saw you're light on, so I had to know whether or not you were in…so it was either throwing a stone at your window to get your attention, which with my luck would probably break your window and then your dad would slap a lawsuit on me, or it was to climb the drain pipe outside of your window but the likelihood of me falling was a lot greater than climbing this tree."

Nathan laughed, she was rambling just like she used to when they first met. She would ramble trying to get her words out or she would ramble because she was embarrassed, more than likely it was both in this situation. "Okay…" He shook his head, a smile still pressed on his face. "So – uh, why didn't you call?"

Haley went to say something but closed her mouth and nodded. "Because I didn't think of that…" She shook her head, she was embarrassed and she could feel her cheeks heating up, she was blushing. "I just – I needed to talk to you."

Nathan sighed, he forgotten for a moment about everything that had happened between them these last few months. For a moment they were just Nathan and Haley again and he loved it, but now it was complicated. Brooke…Haley, two women. This wasn't his usual dilemma; this was more something that was Lucas's deal. He shrugged, "I'm not ready to talk about us, Haley."

"Okay…" She leaned back in the tree, her back pressing against the tree trunk. "Um, well can we just talk about anything…the weather, your summer, what you've been up to…" She paused and smiled, holding up her hand. "No mention of us, I promise."

Nathan looked at her, how could he say no? She was after all his wife, well ex wife. He still loved her, he still wanted to be closer to her and he still wanted to know what was going on in her life…but things were, complicated. He nodded and sat down on the window ledge, leaning further out of the window. "How can I say no when you climbed a tree…" He said with a gentle smile.

Haley smiled back, it was progress. It wasn't much, but it was still progress.

---------------------

Peyton opened her eyes, slowly her focus coming to. She looked down and saw an arm draped across her waist. She smiled, something she hadn't sincerely done in a while. She moved his arm gently off of her as she sat up in her bed and turned, looking at Lucas who was asleep beside her. He had walked her home last night, they hadn't talked about what they were going to do…they hadn't said much. He had just held her hand all the way home and then offered to stay the night, not to do anything…but just to be there, with her. She simply nodded when he offered. They hadn't talked about the pregnancy, but the thought about what they were going to do never left her mind. At one point she actually thought she could keep the baby, that they could raise the child together…but who was she kidding? They were high school students and she already saw the similarities between herself and Karen. Both knocked up by a Scott boy, the only difference she knew Lucas would never leave her…but that wasn't a good thing, he wouldn't leave no matter what. She was going to be holding him back if she kept the baby, she would be holding herself back… she watched as Lucas stirred in the bed.

Lucas opened his eyes and sighed gently, "Morning." He said with a smile looking up to the beautiful blonde staring down at him. He slowly sat himself up in her bed, it should have felt unfamiliar waking up in someone else's bedroom, in someone else's bed….but it didn't. It never did when he was in Peyton's room, maybe it was because Peyton's room was so, Peyton like.

"I'm not going to have the baby." Peyton blurted out in a stern voice. She turned her back to him and slid off of the bed. Her skinny frame covered in a pair of grey pyjama bottoms and a white vest top. Walking over to her chest and drawers, she began to open each one getting out pieces of clothing. She had made her mind up, she couldn't screw their lives up, she couldn't screw his up…he had so much potential.

Lucas frowned, confused… "Wait…what?" He stood up from the bed, his clothes creased from sleeping in them. He walked over to her and watched as she kept digging through her drawers, picking out items of clothing. "Peyton…"

Peyton turned and looked at him, "I've thought about it…and it would be wrong." She said honestly, "We're too young to have a baby, I mean what kind of life would this kid have? I've made up my mind…" She shrugged, she couldn't disappoint so many people in their lives.

Lucas took offence to that, what kind of life would this kid have? His mother had him when she was in high school and he had a pretty good life, sure he didn't have technically have two parents, but he had a mother who loved him and an uncle who would do anything for him. "So that's it…you just decided? I don't get a say in this?" His voice rose, he could tell they were about to argue.

"No you don't." She said, turning to look at him. "This is my body, my choice." She also went on the defensive, it could have been the irregular hormones in her body. She had been so irritable these past few days, seeing Rachel flirt with Lucas had pushed her irritable levels to the point of breaking.

Lucas threw his hands up in the air, "Then why did you even bother telling me Peyton?" His nostrils flaring, "Did you tell me just to see how I would react? Did you want to see what I do? WHAT?"

"I shouldn't have told you, that was a mistake. I was confused, I didn't know what I was going to do…can't you see Lucas, we can't have a baby." She didn't know whether or not she was going to scream or to cry. She knew she was being rash by just making the decision, she knew she was being selfish but she had to do it, for the two of them.

"We can, Peyton." He said, a little shocked at his own words. The truth was all night he had thought about the pregnancy, what it would mean. He could imagine his mom's reaction, he imagined it to be similar to what happened when he told her that Brooke was pregnant. That of course was a false alarm…but it was different this time. He was in love with Peyton, he wanted the baby…he wanted her to have their baby. Sure they might be too young, too immature but he couldn't help how he felt. "We can do this, together…" He looked at her and couldn't help but smile… "If you want us too…" He could protest all her want, but like he said…it was her choice, but now he had given her his opinion, he wanted the baby. He wanted the family and he wanted it with her.

* * *

**A/N: You may find this OOC for Lucas, I don't. They may be young but Lucas is a mature character, and he knows what he wants in life and he's in love with Peyton, so he wants a family. They are my reasons. :) Hope you enjoy**


	8. Through The Darkness There Is Light

Us, together, a family; those words were floating around in her mind. She hadn't said anything, she didn't know what to say. Sure they could have this baby, they could bring it up together but who was she kidding, no matter how Lucas Scott king of charm put it, having a baby with him would just complicate everything. She could think of thousands of reasons why she shouldn't have the baby; Lucas for starters. If they had a baby together, she would be holding him back and she didn't want that. He had so much potential and if he stayed with her then it would be potential squandered. And what about her own father; he would be disappointed in his girl, not full filling her own dreams. He had constantly talked about her getting out and seeing the world and with a baby, that wouldn't exactly happen…Not to mention what his mother would think; Karen got pregnant in high school by a Scott and looked how that turned out. Then there was Brooke, her best friend…she had dated Lucas, she was in love with Lucas – what was she going to say when she found out that Lucas had once again betrayed her, that she had betrayed her. "I-" Peyton tried to think of something to say, Lucas was just standing there looking into her eyes with his pleading baby blues, he was sincere in what he said sure, but could they make it work.

"Hello….Peyton?"

Peyton smiled inside, in true Tree Hill tradition when something big and important was supposed to go down usually someone would walk in and interrupt, she was thankful this time. Peyton turned around and left the bedroom, left Lucas standing in the bedroom. She knew it was the wrong thing to do; but she had to get out of there. "Hey…Brooke" She said as she approached the top of the stairs, "Can you give me a ride to school?" She grabbed her jacket from the top of the stairs and began speedily skipping down the stairs, run just run Peyton, she thought to herself.

Lucas was in disbelief, fate had to be against him. He was finally single and finally ready to tell Peyton about his feelings; but she had beaten him to the punch. She had told him she was pregnant and truthfully, he was happy which knocked him out of the park for six. After all, they were still in high school, they both had brilliant futures ahead of them…but with Peyton being pregnant meant that they could have those futures together, something he wanted inside. Last night all he could think about was their future, together as a family…sure it may have been naïve to think that there would be a happily ever after, but was it a dream? Apparently so, listening to Peyton say that she wasn't going to have the baby, listening to her talk about how it was wrong angered him, why had she even bothered to tell him in the first place if she wasn't going to keep the baby? Why had she given hope of a romance together when she clearly didn't want it? He shook his head, **Stop thinking and Start doing.** Lucas shook his head, and headed for the stairs. So what if Brooke was there, he needed to talk to Peyton. "Peyton…" He called from the top of the stairs, seeing Brooke and Peyton at the bottom about to leave the house.

Brooke turned and looked up to the top of the stairs, Lucas was there? In Peyton's house this early in the morning? Brooke turned and looked back to Peyton, "What's he doing here?"

"Don't ask." She said, opening the front door. "Just drive me to school…" It wasn't really a request, more of a demand. She knew that Brooke probably had so many questions and thoughts running through her head right now, but she didn't want to stand there and wait around…she needed to get out of that house, so she ran through the door and speedily walked over to Brooke's car.

"Peyton…" Brooke and Lucas both said simultaneously. Brooke looked up the stairs at Lucas, she wasn't going to question them now, she could tell that whatever was going on Peyton wanted to bail and if she was any kind of friend, she wouldn't ask questions she would just simply drive. She shrugged looking at Lucas, and followed Peyton out to the car.

This cannot be happening; he sighed and ran half way down the stairs jumping the last few steps. He ran out of the door, past Brooke and over to her car where Peyton was already sat in the passengers seat. The window was wound up and he could hear the music from the closed doors, he rested a hand against the window and looked at her. "Peyton come on, don't leave…we need to talk about this."

Brooke watched Lucas, he was clearly upset and he clearly needed to talk with Peyton, but Peyton came first, she was after all her best friend and what her best friend obviously wanted was a way out. Brooke walked around the car and opened the door to the driver's seat, and stepped inside. She stuck her keys into the ignition, started the car up and took off, driving down the street leaving Lucas behind. They drove for a while, neither of them saying anything. Brooke looked in the rear view mirror and tuted to herself as she turned and parked on a random street "Okay, Peyton what the hell is going on?"

"It's nothing." She said, why bring anyone else into this. Why cause more heartache, she had already done the stupidest thing by telling Lucas, why go one step further. "Just drive, Brooke."

Brooke turned and looked at her best friend, she leant against the drivers seat. "No, I will not drive…Peyton you've been acting weird since, well since I got back. You don't show up to school, you make lame ass excuses as to why you weren't there…" All true, "You bring out the cat claws on Rachel for flirting with Nathan and Lucas, which by the way I'm not condemning just pointing out…and I think I know why you're doing all these pod-peyton things" She sighed, "You're still in love with Lucas"

Peyton had done her best so far not to look at Brooke, but with that last accusation she turned and face her, wide eyes and opened mouth, "That's not it…" Well it was it, Brooke had for once clearly hit home with a part of what was going on, but she had only barely touched down on the issue…she sighed and shook her head, how much longer was she going to hide? "I'm pregnant." She paused and sighed, "and…I'm lost and confused, I just don't anymore."

Brooke slid back in her chair, Peyton was pregnant? She knew for a fact that Peyton had never even had a pregnancy scare before, because she was careful with sex…even all those years dating the then bad boy Nathan Scott and she was careful. She wanted to ask are you sure, but it seemed a little redundant. Peyton wouldn't say something like that, unless it were true. Peyton was pregnant and clearly, it was Lucas's. "I don't know what I should say." She said honestly, she couldn't give her any words of wisdom, she couldn't give her any advice.

Peyton threw her hands to her hair, "Say how much you hate me…" She tucked her blonde curls behind her ear, "Say how stupid I've been…say that you never wanna see me again for betraying you." Peyton burst into a flood of tears.

Brooke tilted her head, looking at Peyton. "Oh come on, I don't hate you…" She was being truthful, if she had come back this summer holding intense feelings for Lucas then she might, but the truth was she was over Lucas. "And you're not stupid, okay." Tears began to form in her eyes, she was one of those people who cried when Bambi's mother died…so seeing her best friend so distraught easily enough brought her to tears. She leaned in closer to Peyton and threw her arms around her, hugging her, comforting her.

----------------

Lucas was in school, he had to talk himself into going…not because he wanted to actually go and learn but because he needed to see Peyton and she had said earlier that she wanted Brooke to drive her to school, which obviously was a lie. As it was now lunch time and neither of them had shown up. They had both missed English and Peyton hadn't shown for history. He should have gone with his gut and just stayed at Peyton's house and waited for her to show there.

Haley slowly made her way up to Lucas, he was waiting by Peyton's locker. "Hey…" She said, unsure of what her next move should be. Did Lucas know about the baby? Had Peyton told him…or was he just waiting there to talk to Peyton about something completely different? She knew the answer to those questions as soon as he turned and looked at her, he looked saddened and defeated and a little mad, which she figured was aimed at her. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you…I just figured it would be best coming from her."

Lucas nodded, he didn't blame Haley for not telling him. He wanted to, just to pass the blame onto someone else but he couldn't. She was his best friend and she had been support for Peyton, he actually admired how she handled it, he knew she had told Peyton that it would be better to tell him the truth and for that he was thankful, otherwise Peyton would have probably just gone on living a lie, pretending everything was happy. "I know – it's just," He shook his head, "Complicated ya know." He leaned in closer to his short best friend, "She told me last night and I was…I was happy, completely shocked and confused but deep down I was happy, ya know."

Haley looked up to him and gently smiled, she hadn't seen him happy in so long so it was nice that he was talking, "my spidey senses are telling me that there is a but coming."

Lucas pulled back and leaned against Peyton's locker, "But then this morning reality kicked in and she went back to being…Peyton…closed off and distant." He sighed and hit his head back against Peyton's locker in frustration.

"Hey cutie…don't look so down." Rachel walked up to Lucas and smiled, he was certainly one of the cutest boys in school and now he was a single agent. The guy had a reputation; Brooke, Peyton…some girl named Anna, he may seem all kinds of sweet, but he was a player and she was interested.

Haley shook her head and stepped in front of Rachel, blocking her from Lucas. "Okay enough is enough," She was tired of this, first the girl had flirted not only with Lucas but also with Nathan and then she had gotten Peyton kicked off of the cheerleading squad …and now she was back to flirting with Lucas, probably only to wind Brooke, Peyton and everyone else up.

"Helen…I was just trying to be nice." Rachel sighed, why was it that girls always seemed to get in the way of her having fun.

Haley sighed, "Being nice? Hmm, well he's not interested. Okay, so you can take your niceties and keep on walking, wonder slut." She hadn't intended on saying the last part, but it just slipped out. "Oh and by the way, the name is Haley." She said correcting Rachel, everyone seemed to get her name wrong. Haley watched as Rachel rolled her eyes and walked away, she smiled. Okay so had been a little mean, but it seemed to get the point across. Turning around, she looked back up at Lucas, who looked a little shocked at her. "What, Brooke was right she's been getting on everyone's nerves lately."

Lucas nodded, it seemed as though hanging around with Brooke and Peyton was rubbing off on her, she was a little more hard headed and stronger than before. He sighed and looked back down the hallway to the school entrance and saw Brooke walking towards them, no Peyton in tow but maybe he could find out where Peyton was.

Haley turned and saw Brooke walking towards them, she turned and looked back at Lucas. He obviously wanted to talk to her, so that was her cue to leave. "Okay, call me later." She said before heading off down the hallway, so the two of them could talk.

Brooke stopped a few feet from Lucas, it would have been sweet seeing him standing there waiting at Peyton's locker for Peyton if the circumstances weren't as they were. She shook her head and continued to head off down the hallway.

Lucas sighed and followed her, walking by her side. If Peyton wasn't in school, then maybe he could get Brooke to talk to him…maybe get Brooke to talk to Peyton for him, "Brooke…"

Brooke sighed and turned, looking at Lucas. "Why are you stalking me? You didn't knock me up." She said rather harshly. Her and Peyton had spent the morning talking about anything and everything, it was refreshing to talk to Peyton like that. To be fully open, they hadn't talked like that in a long time. Peyton had told her that she wasn't sure what she wanted to do; Peyton had told her about all the fears she had about having the baby…in turn, Peyton had asked Brooke to change the subject, to amuse her…so she did; she had told Peyton that she was having slightly more than friendly feelings for a certain dark haired Scott.

"Brooke I have to know where she is."

Brooke turned and looked at him, he looked completely devastated. She rolled her eyes and grabbed a hold of his arm dragging him into an empty class room. She closed the door and turned around, looking at him. "She doesn't want me to tell you where she is, in fact she made it quite clear than she didn't want me to tell you anything…" She watched as Lucas looked down, upset. "but…as I can see how clearly pathetic you are, I'm gonna give you a little insight. She's scared…"

Lucas sat down on a desk and interrupted her, "I know…but"

She rose her index finger in the air, "Now is not the time for talking, it's for listening." Brooke folded her arms across her chest, "She's scared because she thinks by having the baby she's going completely destroy you're so called promising life and hers." She continued, "She's scared because she doesn't want to disappoint her dad, or you mom…she's friggen scared that you're gonna do a classic Scott, knock her up and leave her hanging, holding the baby." Brooke took a step closer to Lucas and rested a hand on his shoulder. "I know you Lucas – I know you want to do the right thing, by being there for her…but it has to be more than that."

Lucas looked up at her confused, "I already told her that we could do this together…"

Brooke smiled, "Saying it is one thing…doing it is another. You have to make her believe you." She paused, "She's sitting on the fence right now, confused and alone. You need to be there for her, not judge her, and not tell her what to do…just tell her you will be there for her, whatever she decides…make her believe you." Brooke sighed and pulled away from Lucas. She felt saddened for the both of them, clearly from the way Lucas had been looking at Peyton he was still in love with her. It made her a little sad, because she knew that he never had loved her like that, she was sad because she wanted that same kind of love. "I dropped her off at her house, but she's said she was going to go to the Bond's family clinic in the city to organise the …" She couldn't say abortion; she didn't want to think about it. She had tried to talk Peyton out of it, but Peyton had told her just to be a friend and support her, not give her advice. Peyton had also told her she wanted to be alone for when it happened…she didn't want to leave Peyton, but she had to. She wasn't going to give Peyton advice or try and stop her – instead she had decided to hand out a little advice to the blonde Scott instead, "If you go now, you might catch her." She watched as Lucas sped off, leaving her alone in the classroom.

-------------

Lucas drove into the car park of the family clinic; it had taken him forty minutes to get there from school. Traffic was bad and every short cut he tried to take seemed to only take longer. He pushed the car door opened and ran down the pathway heading towards the family clinic. He knew from Brooke's pregnancy scare last time, that the city family clinic was one of the only places that you could go in and have the abortion, no appointment needed…you just had to wait. He stopped, seeing Peyton emerge from the building. "Peyton?" He felt completely sick to the stomach, it was like he couldn't breath

Peyton looked up and saw Lucas standing in front of her. She sighed and made her way down the path, stopping by his side. She turned and looked up at him, "It's over now!" She patted his shoulder. She had been sick in the clinic, she had also had her first case of severe mood swings; yelling at the woman on the front desk,

Lucas looked down at her and was about to say something when she continued.

"Mood swings, nausea …only lasts until the end of the first trimester, it's gonna be a bumpy ride!"


	9. The Time Has Come

Peyton squinted her eyes open to the sudden burst of rays of sun that filled her room. She growled and rolled over on her bed to look at the window who the hell had opened her curtains? All she could make out from her sleep bound eyes was that it was a figure of a girl "Brooke?" She sat up slowly in her bed, wiping the sleep away from her eyes. The outline of the smiling cheerleader was now clearer and more focused "Brooke…what are you doing here?"

Brooke shook her head and frowned, "As if you didn't know…" Brooke walked over to the bed and jumped on it, bouncing a couple of times before settling down. "So, enquiring minds want to know the 411!" Brooke leaned back, resting herself against Peyton's headboard. She had tried calling Peyton last night to see what had happened, whether or not Peyton had gone through with the abortion? "Did Lucas save the day?" Brooke raised her brow twice, intrigued.

Peyton frowned at Brooke, it was too early to be answering questions about her sex life / love life / pregnancy, it was too early to be answering any questions period. She slid back down in the bed and covered her head with the covers. Yesterday Lucas had shown up at the abortion clinic in the city, but he was too late…well not too late, but she had already made up her mind. She was going to keep the baby…Lucas had then insisted on driving her home, but Peyton argued there was no point as his and her car were both there, but in typical Lucas Scott tradition is wouldn't take no for an answer, so he drove her home. She had slept most of the way, not because she was overly tired but because she wanted to avoid any more conversations that day. When he had dropped her off home, he had asked to come in so they could talk…but again she used the sleep excuse, they could talk for the next nine months, one night wasn't going to make a difference. Peyton growled again as the covers covering her head were lifted up and off of her, out of her grip. "Brooke!"

Brooke jumped up off of the bed with Peyton's bedcovers in her hands. She looked down at Peyton's pyjama-clothed, sleepy body. "P. Sawyer, you know that you should never leave a friend hanging, especially one that is as friendly as me!"

Peyton sat up in the bed and kicked her legs against the mattress in frustration, she looked over to her best friend who was obviously dying to know the gossip. "First of all who are enquiring minds? It had better just be an enquiring mind and that mind had better be just yours!" She wasn't ready for her pregnancy to be common knowledge yet, "and second of all, the 411? You've been watching way too much daytime TV!" Peyton reached behind her and grabbed a hold of her pillow, throwing it at Brooke. Peyton tilted her head and smirked.

Brooke caught the pillow and raised her brow, curiously. "A smile…that means…" She threw the pillow to the floor in excitement, "Oh my god!"

Peyton's eyes widened, but the smirk still remained on her face. "It means that Lucas did save the day…kind of." She paused and lifted her arm in the air, pointing her finger at Brooke accusingly. "Which means you, Brooke Davis cannot keep a secret!"

"I'm so sorry, Peyton…in a way that I'm so completely not sorry!" Brooke began jumping up and down in Peyton's bedroom. She didn't know why all of this excitement had filled her, she should have been a little upset, she was yesterday but finding out that Peyton had decided to keep the baby well, it made her happy. She walked over to the bed and jumped on it, hugging Peyton, making Peyton fall on the bed. "Oops, sorry…I forgot, baby on board!" Brooke grinned

Peyton sat back up and rolled her eyes, baby on board? Brooke was overly happy about her pregnancy, it was scaring her a little. In fact it was scaring her how happy she was about the pregnancy, sure there were a lot of thoughts in the back of her mind that kept resurfacing, and making her feel guilty; Karen, her dad, a promising future etc but the thought of having a family, a family of her own seemed to outweigh them all. Peyton sighed, "Brooke, you're gonna have to keep this quiet…Lucas and I still have to talk about how we're gonna handle everything." She sighed

"My mouth is" Brooke motioned to her mouth and mimicked closing a zip. She smiled.

Peyton nodded, "Okay…" She looked off to the side of her bedroom and smiled, "So what was this thing you liking someone." She looked back at Brooke, tilted her head and clicked her fingers. "Oh right yeah, Nathan Scott!" She shook her head, "As in Tree Hill's former bad boy, former boyfriend of mine, former husband of Haley's…Brooke what are you doing?" Peyton playfully hit Brooke, she was worried about how this was all going to happen. Brooke, Nathan and Haley…a love triangle, one she had never thought about before.

Brooke shrugged and jumped off of the bed, "I don't know what you're talking about…" She smirked, "I only told you that to get you to fess up with the emotions, which you did." Brooke lied, she had told Peyton that she liked Lucas and that was the truth. During the end of Summer she had been having feelings for Nathan, she was still having them, but it didn't mean anything. They flirted but it didn't mean anything was going to happen. She made her way around Peyton's bed and turned back looking at her, "Now get your skinny soon to be fat ass out of bed." She joked as she walked out of Peyton's bedroom.

Peyton threw another pillow in Brooke's direction but missed. Soon to be fat ass? Great another worry she could add to her list, she sighed and slid back down into her bed looking up at the ceiling.

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Lucas stepped into his bedroom, he was dressed and ready for school. He had woken up a little later than usual because he had stayed up a little later than usual; driving back to the city with Nathan to pick up Peyton's car. The two brothers hadn't spoken since the end of summer, both of them seemed to be at logger heads with one another again over Haley; Lucas didn't think it was fair how Nathan was treating Haley, just shutting her out…but last night they had bumped into each other as Lucas was walking to the bus station. Nathan had obviously been curious to ask him where he was going, so he had told him that he had picked Peyton up from the city and was going back to pick up her car which is when Nathan offered to drive him down. He wasn't going to turn it down, the bus ride would have taken an extra forty minutes and at least this way they could talk and perhaps build some bridges, mend their slightly fractured friendship. Lucas grabbed his bag from the bed and headed to his door, which was connected to the porch. Upon opening, he saw Peyton standing there obviously about to knock. "Peyton…" He smiled

Peyton pulled her arm back and rested it by her side, "That's so weird I was just about to knock." Peyton looked down at her feet, awkwardness. She knew they were going to have a conversation, but she wasn't sure what it would entail exactly. Obviously it would be about how they were going to tell their parents etc but what else did it mean? Did it mean anything else? She turned and looked over to her black convertible just sitting outside of his house. "So thanks-" She said turning back to look at Lucas, "for going to get my car. It saves me a lot of walking!" She joked

"No problem – I mean you wouldn't have been without a car if it wasn't for me." Which was true, he had gotten her pregnant, he had no doubt been an influence on her decision to go the clinic and he had insisted after seeing her there to drive her back. On all accounts he was guilty of leaving her stranded. Reaching into his pockets he pulled out her car keys, "Besides it gave Nathan and I a chance to mend a fence."

Peyton looked at him curiously. "Nathan doesn't…"

"I didn't tell him." Lucas said, reassuring her. He wasn't exactly going to tell his half brother that he had gotten Peyton pregnant before telling his own mother, even though it would have been a lot easier to tell Nathan than it was going to be telling his mother. He turned and looked over his shoulder into his bedroom and then looked back at her, "Do you wanna talk?" He had wanted to go over to her house last night to talk to her, but she seemed tired in the car and when was there going to be a better time for them to talk?

"Now?" Peyton looked past Lucas into his bedroom, wondering whether or not he was home alone. "Are you sure that's a good idea?" She didn't want to have a heart aching conversation about the baby with Karen still home. She had preferred to get talk to Lucas first and decide between them what was going to happen before involving the parental units, which was inevitable.

Lucas nodded and smiled, running his hand through his short blonde hair. He knew exactly what she was thinking, "My mom's not home, so it's safe." He joked trying to lighten the humour a little. Taking a step back he watched as Peyton nodded and entered his bedroom. Shutting the door behind her, he leant against the closed door watching Peyton, she was giving his bedroom the once over. It seemed forever since she had been in his room; the last time he could remember Peyton being in his room was when they had decided not to be together, they being Peyton he had just agreed because of everything that had happened between him, Brooke and Peyton. He didn't want to make her life any more complicated so he took a step back, something he's regretted since. "So-" Lucas rested his hands in his pockets.

Peyton turned around and looked at Lucas, he looked as nervous as she did. "So-" She shrugged sitting down on his bed. She turned her head looking at his bed side cabinet, what was she looking for? She knew what she was looking for, pictures of him and Brooke, evidence. She was looking for evidence of his lingering feelings for Brooke not to confess her own feelings for him, rolling her eyes she looked back at him. Enough is enough, "Okay…let's just get straight to it. Telling the parents, I'm not going to tell my dad…" She paused, "I mean I am going to tell him, but not over email. I'm gonna wait until he's next home."

Lucas nodded and walked over to Peyton, "Yeah, I doubt he'd really wanna hear that by email." He joked, "Besides, I'd rather not have your dad hunt me down and give me a completely new reason for calling me rake boy"

Peyton shook her head and laughed, it was good that they were finding the humour in this. "He won't gut you with a rake…he'll just one of his fishing hooks!" She widened her eyes and smirked.

Lucas laughed, this right here, right now, it felt good. It felt like them, how they should be together. They had the same sense of humour, they shared the same interests…why had everything else become so complicated?

Peyton's smile faded and she frowned, "But – your mom." She closed her eyes and ran her hands through her blonde curly locks, "I think I'm more worried about disappointing her than I am my own dad." She turned and looked at Lucas, "How crazy is that?" It was true, Karen had been through the same thing…well almost. Lucas was no Dan, he was standing by her not running away and knocking up the next woman he seduced. She could feel tears beginning to form and she shook her head.

Lucas straightened his body up and sat down beside Peyton on the bed, wrapping his arm around her shoulder he pulled her in closer, hugging her "Everything's going to be fine, Peyt." He watched as she pulled back, looking at up him. Her eyes were water bound and shining because of it, he smiled and stroked the side of her face. He leaned in instinctively and kissed her forehead and then looked back down into her eyes and before he knew what was he was doing, he let his emotions get the better of him. He leaned in and kissed her on the lips, soft but passionately at the same time.

As they parted from the kiss, Peyton pulled further back. Confusion once again filling her mind, she shook her head and stood up. "No – this can't be that." She began to walk around the room, she could feel Lucas's own confused eyes following her.

"Peyton, why not?" His voice was barely above a whisper, she was backing away again. It irritated him, to be truthful. He had put himself out there once again and she was backing away, he loved her and he knew that but he hated how she would distance herself from him.

She turned and looked at him, "Because…" The truth was she had no good reasons, she had wanted to be with him and it was clearly obvious now that he wanted to be with her, why else would he have kissed her? Maybe because he feels like he needs to be in a romantic relationship with the woman having his baby? Peyton raised her hands to her head covering her eyes, too many thoughts running through her mind. She sighed and looked down at him, his baby blue's looked so hopeful. "Because it…" She paused and rolled her eyes "It just complicates everything."

Lucas sighed and stood up, throwing his hands in the air out of frustration. "What a load of bull." He was tired of their tip toeing around everything, "If anything it simplifies everything. You and me together, how it was supposed to be from the beginning...For god's sake Peyton, we're having a baby together. What more do you need?" He walked up to her and looked down into her eyes, "You're just scared!"

"No, Lucas I'm having a baby that's not scary at all." She retorted sarcastically, she knew full well that he meant she was scared about being in a relationship with him but the sarcasm just kicked in, as it always did whenever she was getting called up on something. "You just don't seem to get it do you," Oh boy, go Peyton, screw it up even further. She couldn't help herself, defensive Peyton just went into an auto mode.

"Clearly I don't." He said, harshly. "So why don't you explain it to me." Lucas turned around and walked over to the door leading to the porch. He punched it out of sheer anger and frustration, so unlike him but he needed to vent. Turning back he looked over at Peyton, "No I do get it, you're scared. You're scared that, I'll leave you…but I won't." He continued, "You're scared that I'm in love with Brooke…but I'm not." Call her on everything, no more hiding. "You're scared that you're holding me back but the truth is by being with you, you're keeping my afloat. You're all I want Peyton, all I've ever wanted." He leaned back against the door, "But as usual your self doubt and insecurities are trying to push me away." He finished, he knew he was out of line but he didn't care. Lucas sighed as Peyton walked up to him, her face was illustrating how angry and pissed off she was. A slap, was to come, he could feel it.

Peyton shook her head, she had nothing. No quick retort, no sarcastic comment, nothing. She raised her arms in the air and watched as Lucas closed his eyes bracing himself, she couldn't help but smile. Grabbing the back of his head, as she did with their first kiss she pulled his face closer to hers and kissed him.

--------------------

Brooke walked out of English class, she had actually drifted off to sleep half way through the class. She was supposed to be making notes for an absentee certain blonde haired friend of hers but she was bored, so bored that she fell asleep. Obviously only the girl sitting beside her had noticed because she had felt a nudge when the bell rang. She slowly began to make her way down the corridor, was this how it was going to be from now on? Peyton and Lucas off together, doing whatever…and she was going to be alone? Sure she had other friends, but Peyton was really her only close friend. She sighed, depressed.

"Turn that frown upside down!"

Brooke smirked and turned around, looking at Nathan who had obviously been walking behind her. "Who says I was frowning?"

Nathan smirked and walked up beside Brooke, looking down at her small stature. "The depressive sigh was a give away" He continued to walk down the hallway with Brooke by his side. "So what's going on with Peyton?" He asked curiously. He had noticed that she had been missing school and last night, her car was in the city. Something was going on and he wanted to know what, after all he did care about Peyton…he always would, they had become friends since they had broken up a little over a year ago.

Brooke shrugged, "You know Peyton, covered head to toe in issues." Not specific but truthful, Brooke looked back up at Nathan, "Talking about what's going on with people…" Brooke said trying to get them into a new topic, one she wanted to really know about. "What's going on with you and tutor girl? Spoken to her yet?"

Nathan nodded but didn't add anything else.

"Hmm, interesting…" Brooke smiled and continued walking, "So the iceberg that was Nathan Scott is thawing!" She was a little disappointed and she knew it was wrong to be, Nathan was after all a married man…well not technically, but he used to be.

Nathan shrugged, "I'm just talking to her, it's not like we're going to the chapel to renew our vows." He said honestly, the truth was he was in two minds about everything. When he was Haley all he could really think about was the possibility of getting back together and if they could get back to how things were, but lately with Brooke he had been thinking about the possibilities of how things could be with Brooke. She was a lot like him, they had both been heart broken and no doubt the sex would be great, he smirked looking down at her. "Why you so interested?"

Brooke shrugged and looked back up at him, "We're friends…friends like to know things." She smirked, she knew he was calling her bluff, trying to see what feelings she had. "Besides, I just wanted to know if it was still a one woman show, or if other girls could jump aboard." Brooke raised her hand to his chest and patted him playfully before turning around and walking off down the hallway.

Nathan sighed and watched her go, this was going to be complicated no matter what.

-----------------

Karen opened the door to the kitchen and stepped in, carrying a brown plastic bag with fresh vegetables and fruit. She stopped seeing Lucas and Peyton sat at the table, "Lucas…Peyton," She said a little shocked. Last she had heard Lucas was with Brooke, but who could keep up these days with the kids and their dating game. She couldn't help but notice that the two of them were looking at her, scared. "What's going on?"

Lucas spoke up, "We have something to tell you."


	10. Be There For You

This right here was every mother's worst nightmare, well not the worst but it was pretty high up on the list. She didn't know what to say, what was she supposed to say? Was she supposed to yell and scream at the two of them until her heart was content? No, that wouldn't change anything – Peyton was pregnant and Lucas had gotten her that way. Karen sighed and raised her hands to her face, she had been in this boat herself; telling her parents that she was pregnant and she remembered all to well about Lucas and Brooke's pregnancy scare, it was the only time that she had ever slapped her son – and she had only slapped him because it hit too close to home. "I don't know what you expect me to say?" She had to hold herself back from being sarcastic and adding congratulations to the end of the sentence.

Lucas looked at his mom, her eyes weren't telling. When he had told her that Brooke might have been pregnant he saw a certain look in his mother's eyes, it was pure disappointment. He had expected to the see the same look tonight but it wasn't there. He turned and looked at Peyton, who was staring down at the floor. He reached over and rested his hands on hers, looking back to his mother. "We just wanted to tell you."

Peyton felt the warmth and the moistness of Lucas's hands which was a pure indication that he was probably just as nervous as she was. She looked up from the floor and looked at Lucas, she felt like smiling…because he was there, with her…being with her. She turned and looked at Karen, she had done her best not to look at her since Lucas had said that she was pregnant. Peyton closed her eyes, it felt like her stomach was doing back flips probably from the nausea or more likely from the feeling that at any moment Karen would yell, shout, look at her with complete and utter disappointed. Great, she felt the tears beginning to form in her eyes. Standing up from the table, she opened her eyes briefly. "I uh-" She stuttered "Need to get some air." She shook her head and walked across the kitchen, opened the door and stepped out onto the porch.

Karen watched Peyton walk outside, she turned and looked at Lucas who was already on his feet ready to walk after her. "Wait…" Karen raised her hand and rested it on his chest, she looked up to her son. "You and me are gonna have a talk."

Lucas looked out to the porch and saw Peyton pacing around, he looked back down at his mom. "I know we do – but I have to…" He moved to step past his mother but she stepped in front of him again, her hand still resting on his chest. "Mom…"

"You're right…we will talk later." Karen turned and looked out onto the porch, "But right now I think it would best if I went outside and talked to Peyton."

Lucas frowned, "I don't think that's such a good idea." He didn't want his mom to go out there and talk to Peyton, he didn't want to make Peyton feel anymore scared and vulnerable than she already felt.

Karen turned and looked up at son, she took her hand away from his chest and rested it on her hip. "Lucas I know you think you know what you're doing, I know you think you have everything under control…but standing outside, pacing our porch is a scared pregnant seventeen year old girl and as I have a little experience in this area." She said half joking referring to her own teen pregnancy, "I think it might be a little wiser for me to offer the advice and the ear to talk to."

Lucas looked down at his mother, he knew she was right but that didn't stop him from wanting to go outside and comfort Peyton, to protect her. "So you're pulling them mom card."

Karen smiled and nodded, "Yes I am…now why don't you make yourself useful and make some hot tea for us." Karen watched as Lucas nodded and proceeded to walk across the kitchen. She turned around and walked outside, joining Peyton on the porch. She wasn't sure what she was going to say – Peyton had already been through so much in her life, losing a mother at such an early age, her father was rarely around because of his job. She smiled and walked up beside Peyton and leant down, resting her arms on the railings on the porch. "You know when I found out I was pregnant I pretended for weeks that I had gotten it wrong but deep down inside I knew, so I finally worked up the courage to tell my parents and they went crazy." She half smiled, "Things were thrown, unpleasant things were said and I ended up living by myself." She turned and looked at Peyton, "Dan went away to college and the only person I could really turn to was Keith. It's funny…" She paused and smiled again, "You really do find out who truly cares about you, because they are the people who are there for you."

Peyton had been half tempted to bolt as soon as she walked out of the door, but she couldn't leave Lucas to face the music by himself, they had agreed to tell Karen together and they did…which was great in theory, in reality she had wished she hadn't seen Karen's face when she found out, she would have been just as happy to imagine the disappointment and anger. Peyton turned and looked at Karen, the cheeks on her face were wet from the tears that had fallen. "I'm so sorry, Karen" She couldn't think of what else to say.

Karen raised her hand to Peyton's face and tucked some loose strands behind Peyton's ear. "Things happen and it's what we do when they happen that matters." Karen took a step closer to Peyton and hugged her, she felt Peyton's arms wrap around her, hugging her tightly as though she had never been hugged before.

---------------

Haley turns the sign on Karen's Café's door, to closed. It had been a long night, Karen had phoned in earlier to say that she wasn't going to be able to close up and asked whether Haley could do it. Haley noted that Karen sounded, well un-Karen like. She had been around Karen long enough to know something was wrong, so she figured the obvious Peyton and Lucas had told Karen about the pregnancy, which was a good thing. Secrets weren't a good thing – she felt her heart start to race as she saw a familiar figure standing across the street, staring at her. Secrets also never stayed buried – no matter how much you wanted them to. She turned around and leant back against the door, closing her eyes.

_The dressing room contained what every entertainer could want; a vanity mirror to make sure you were looking your best before you went out on stage. A bottle of room temperature water for the vocals, a few letters from people who had seen the show, 'fan letters' as they were known as. Everything was great, or it was supposed to be. Haley grabbed the bottle of chilled champagne and brought the tip to her mouth and drank from the bottle. She watched as the dressing room door opened and there was Chris, standing there looking at her, amused. "Oh you think this is funny?" _

_Chris nodded and walked over to her. He and Haley had spent the past month getting to know each other better – on stage and off of stage. He knew that Haley James Scott as she was calling herself, wasn't one to drown her sorrows…at least now with alcohol. "What's going on Haley?" _

_Haley picked up a piece of paper from the floor and shook it around in the air, "I can tell you what's not going on." She was slightly tipsy from the bottle of champagne she had been drinking. "And that's my marriage…yeah! Stupid dan…-Nathan signed.." She was rambling her words. _

_Chris took the piece of paper and looked at it and nodded, "Apparently you're a free woman." _

_Haley turned and looked at Chris and frowned, "I am not free. I am taken. I am Mrs Haley James Scott…see I have a mrs in front of my name and his name as my name. See that's taken!" She wasn't making much sense, a little of it was due to the alcohol but mostly it was because she was still confused. Dan had given her the papers…and they were signed by Nathan, she knew his handwriting. _

_Chris nodded and sat next to her. Reaching into his denim jacket pocket he pulled out a small flask and took a sip from it. "Well, Miss or Mrs…a woman should never drink alone!"_

_Haley turned and looked at him and laughed, she reached over and clinked the bottle of champagne to his small flask. "Well then let's drink…"_

Haley opened her eyes and sighed if only that was where it ended. The following morning she woke up in his room, in his bed next to him. Thankfully he was asleep when she crawled out of his room in the early hours of the morning…and thankfully it seemed as though he didn't remember the encounter because he never brought it up again. She felt a tap against the café's door and slowly turned around seeing Chris standing the other side. He looked exactly the same as he did the day she left to come home. She took a step back and opened the café door, "What are you doing here?" She got straight to the point.

Chris smiled, "It's nice to see you too Haley." He shook his head and stepped past her inside of the café. He turned around and looked at her, he had always thought Haley had looked beautiful but she looked even more gorgeous than he remembered. Maybe it was the hair, it was slightly lighter than he remembered.

"Right, if I had thought it was nice to see you then I would have said it…but I didn't so I go back to my original question, what are you doing here Chris?" Haley sighed, she was in no mood to play games.

"Just passing through town and I saw you from across the street and I had to come and say hello to my old singing partner." He sighed and sat down at one of the tables, "I think I preferred the on the road Haley, Tree Hill Haley is moody!" He joked. "So did you make it up with the high school jock? Did he take you back into his loving arms?"

Haley sighed and stayed beside the door. "That's none of your business…and we're still closed, so you should go." She watched as he stood up and walked over to her.

"Come on Haley, come on the back road with me. This town isn't big enough for you and obviously by your charming greeting to me, school boy hasn't taken you back…so what's left for you here?"

Haley sighed and looked down. If this had been a dream that would be the point for Nathan to walk in and say it was him, he was here for her but this wasn't a dream. This was sucky reality, a sucky reality where she had drunkenly slept with Chris, a sucky reality where she was in pure denial to herself about it. She looked back up at him, "It doesn't matter if we're together now or not, he's the one for me and I have faith that we'll get back together." She said simply, referring to Nathan.

Chris sighed and began to walk out of the door, he turned back and looked at Haley. "Yeah, but will he want you back when you confess all of your sins?" He smiled at her, they hadn't talked about their sexual encounter on tour, he had decided that he would just let things be…but when Haley just took off and left all of a sudden, he was a little hurt. "I'll be seeing you around, Haley!" He turned and walked away from the café.

Haley closed the door and turned the key, she raised her hand in the air and hit it against the wooden door frame twice. All she could feel inside was rage, she had never felt like this before. Who the hell did he think he was? She had made a stupid drunken mistake, she had no intention of telling anyone about it, why would she? If she told Nathan it would not only completely destroy any chances of them getting back together but it would probably ruin any chances of them being friends again and she couldn't lose him, she just couldn't.

----------------------------

Peyton walked into her bedroom and turned around looking at Lucas, who was behind her. She shrugged her shoulders and fell back onto the bed, sitting down. "I can't believe we just did that." She was still in complete shock, they had just confessed to one of the two parents they needed to confess to…and they were still alive to tell the tale. She smiled, Karen had been so nice and supporting to her – something she didn't expect, it was the complete opposite of what she thought she would happen.

Lucas walked over to Peyton's desk and rested against it. He folded his arms and also smiled out of shock. He had expected his mom to hit the roof, as she did when he told her Brooke might be pregnant but she hadn't. After the talk with Peyton outside, the two of them had come back in and the three of them were talking about how they were going to handle telling Larry, Karen suggested that all three of them tell him when he gets back. "I know…" Lucas looked over at Peyton, everything was falling into place perfectly. He stood up and walked over to her… "Now we just have to concentrate on you two." He said referring to Peyton and the baby, "on the three of us, together." He leaned down and went in to kiss Peyton but watched as she fell further back on the bed to avoid the kiss.

"Wait." Peyton raised her hands to Lucas's shoulders and pushed him further back so that he was standing up straight. She slid off of the bed and stood up, in front of him. He was only a little taller than her, so she didn't have to look up much to look into his baby blues. "Everything is going good…" She paused, "Great even which is kind of freaking me out a little." She admitted, "So…how about we just take…this, us, slow…"

Lucas looked at Peyton and raised a brow, smirking. "Slower than…having a baby together?" He joked.

Peyton tilted her head looking at him. She raised her hand and playfully hit him on the shoulder.

He flinched at being hit and rubbed his shoulder, "Ow…that hurt!" He nodded to her, "Take things slow. I've been waiting long enough for us, that I think I can do that!"

Peyton looked up at him, she loved how honest and upfront Lucas was with her. He had always been so passionate about them being a couple, even when they first met and he had apparently been crushing on her. He spoke to her with such passionate and powerful words of wanting and love. "Are you…because if I remember correctly you tend to go all in, full throttle," She joked.

Lucas nodded, "Are your saying that I tend to put a little too much effort and enthusiasm into a relationship with someone I love?"

Peyton mimicked Lucas's nod and laughed.

Lucas shook his head and took a step closer to Peyton, he wrapped his arms around her body embracing her with a hug. "This isn't full throttle is it?" He whispered into her ear.

Peyton shook her head. It was perfect, where they were right now; they were having a baby which obviously was going to cause some serious stress problems but they could still joke around with each other. She felt like a huge weight had been lifted off of her shoulders confessing to Karen, half the battle was already done all they had to worry about now was telling her father.

---------------------

Keith opened his front door and looked from side to side, seeing Karen stood there. He was confused, "Karen…"

Karen stepped closer to Keith and threw her arms around him. He was the person she could turn to in a crisis. She had told Peyton earlier that you find out who really cares about you in the time of a crisis, and Keith was that guy.

**A/N: Hmm well I thought I would give Peyton a break emotionally wise, she's a character thats been dragged through the mud the most...but its Tree Hill, things happen! And.. most of you probably didn't like Haley's new little problem, but I thought I would add more spice to her character. Show that she is flawed. I've decided that it's definately going to be either Nathan/Brooke or Nathan/Haley - Chris wont be sticking around for too long - only long enough to cause a little trouble and maybe get his ass kicked. We'll see how it goes. **

**Anyways thanks for all the reviews, I do like them.**


	11. Exclusive

Peyton opened the front door to her house, it had been a week since she had really last been home. Karen had insisted that she come over for dinner the day after the confession and then things went on from there; every night this past week she had dinner over at Lucas's and she had stayed over there too once again at Karen's request, it was nice but a little overwhelming. Peyton dropped her bag which contained her clothes of the past week to the floor and ran up the stairs. As she entered her bedroom, she saw Brooke sprawled out across her bed fast asleep. Peyton slowly entered the room, trying not to make a noise…and once she reached the bed she jumped on it, to wake her best friend up.

Brooke's eyes sprang open because of sudden movement of the bed. She rolled over and saw Peyton sat beside her, giving her that curious – what are you doing here look Peyton had perfected over the years. "Ah, Peyton Sawyer you don't just wake a girl from her precious beauty sleep!"

Peyton tilted her head and raised her brow, "Uh you do if that girl is sleeping in my bed!" Peyton smirked and playfully slapped Brooke on the leg. Peyton stood up and walked across the room to her bathroom and noticed that all of Brooke's makeup was sprawled across the cabinet. "Did your parents kick you out or something? Cause this place is looking like casa de Brooke?" Peyton turned back and looked at Brooke, folding her arms across her chest.

Brooke sat up in Peyton's bed and looked around, Brooke's mom had moved back into town just after summer and they had moved into a house just down the road of her old one. Apparently they didn't trust Brooke to live by herself; or with Peyton and now with her father back in business and rolling in the money, Brooke's mom had gone back to being her old self; shopping till drops and the first thing she bought was the pretty new house. "What the place needed a little re-vamping, it was a little too dark and broody!" Brooke turned and rolled out of bed, she had been out the night before to a party and had decided to drop by Peyton's to see if she wanted to come out for a little fun, but Peyton wasn't home… "So, you don't call you don't write…I mean this past week you've been kind of M-I-A…is everything alright?"

Peyton nodded, "Yeah I've just been staying at Lucas's this past week…Karen kind of insisted." It was nice that Karen was looking out for her, but it was completely weird for her; after all she hadn't really been looked after since her mother died as her father was always away working. Peyton shook her head and looked at her best friend, tilting her head.

Brooke walked up to Peyton; she was dressed in a pink thin strappy top with pink and white striped pyjama bottoms. "Well I think this is all just turning out peachy keen, jelly bean!" Brooke wrapped her arms around Peyton, she was honestly happy that everything was going good for Peyton, it was about time that Peyton was happy. Brooke pulled back and looked up at her best friend who was slightly taller than her, "Oh and to answer you're original question, I came over last night to spend some quality BFF time with my BFF but alas, no BFF in sight…so I stayed the night. Anyways – are you coming to that charity thing today?"

Peyton looked at Brooke confused, but then it clicked into place. The school was holding a charity event at the school; they did it every year. The guys sports teams would split into two and take each other on with the spectators placing bets on who would win and what not; all the money raised going to the charity. Last year, Peyton and Brooke had volunteered to go into the dunking tank – which was fun for a while but after getting dunked into water 30 times it kind of got a little old. So this year, Peyton had opted just to be a spectator…Brooke however had opted to take part, Peyton smirked. "Right…and what booth are you at again?"

Brooke frowned and shook her head, "That's not even funny! I can't believe they even nominated me for that stupid booth." Brooke turned around and walked over to Peyton's full length mirror, looking at herself. "I mean I don't mind kissing – I'm a big fan of it, but a kissing booth? Seriously?"

Peyton walked over to Brooke and put an arm around her neck, "Well just pucker it up, because it's for charity!" Brooke had tried to convince Peyton a few weeks back to join her in the booth and she would have usually, she was all for raising money for charity but it just so happened that was the day when she found out she pregnant so needless to say her mind was a little preoccupied.

Brooke rolled her eyes, "My lips are not charity!" She sighed and walked over to the bed, collapsing onto it.

Peyton watched Brooke and laughed. It was certainly going to be an interesting day. Lucas was scheduled to play for the guy's basketball team so she said she would stop by, Haley had been talked into singing and Brooke was going to be at the kissing booth, kissing probably 95 of the guys in school.

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Haley walked into the school gymnasium it was already full of people wandering around the stalls. She looked over to the stage and saw the microphone and a keyboard set up for her later on. She was dreading it, even though she had been singing to a crowd of people when she went on tour – it was different singing in front of your peers, people you see everyday. She turned her attentions to the basketball court and saw the guys warming up, they were all dressed in their basketball uniforms but had added dorky glasses and caps to their appearance. Haley smirked and slowly made her way over to Nathan and Tim, who were both stretching out. "Wow look at you two dorks" She grinned.

Nathan turned and looked up at Haley from the floor, he was wearing a pair of goofy black framed glasses and a backward baseball cap. "It's all for charity right?" He stood up from the floor and looked from Haley to the stage. "So I heard you were going to be singing later…" He still admired Haley's voice, she had a beautiful voice but it was still like a knife had pierced his heart when he thought about her and singing; after all she left him last year to go and sing.

Haley shrugs, "Yeah, I'm supposed to be…but I don't know if I can do it." Haley rested her hands inside her jeans pockets and looked over to the stage, her face portraying her feelings; scared.

Nathan looked at and smiled gently. "Oh come on, you've down bigger shows than this…besides, you have a great voice and you show it off!"

Haley turned and looked up at Nathan and smiled, "Thank you Nathan!" Before she knew what she was doing, she took a step closer to him and wrapped her arms around his neck, hugging him. She knew as soon as she did, she probably shouldn't have.

Nathan paused a moment, Haley was hugging him and it felt good. It felt right, just like it used to. He wrapped his arms around her waist, hugging her back. Resting his head on her shoulder he watched as Brooke walked across the gymnasium over to the kissing booth where she had been sat for the past half an hour. He sighed as he and Haley parted from their hug. He smiled gently at her before turning and walking over to the guys at the other side of the court.

Haley watched him and go and smiled to herself, he didn't pull back from the hug. Was there hope? She had to believe there was, she knew they were meant to be together but it was going to take time and she was going to wait, she had to. Turning around she saw Peyton enter the gym and slowly walked over to her. "Hey stranger…didn't think I'd see you here today."

Peyton looked at Haley and shrugged, "Why not? I'm little miss school spirit" She said sarcastically. She smirked and looked over to Brooke who was at the kissing booth. Above the booth was a sign, $20 a kiss. Last year it was a buck a kiss, Brooke had obviously raised the price – was that a bad thing, no…after all the money raised today was going to charity. She shook her head and looked across the gymnasium and saw Lucas making his way over to her and Haley. "Hey bucky!" She said referring to the fake buck teeth he was wearing.

Lucas smirked and pulled out his fake buck teeth and looked at Peyton. They hadn't defined their relationship yet, were they dating? No. They were, he didn't know what they were doing but he wanted desperately wanted the tag of boyfriend to be his. He smirked, "So we're all doing our bit for charity…Haley's singing, Brooke kissing guys…what are you doing?"

Peyton smirked, "Well I was thinking about joining Brooke on the kissing booth later on." She joked and paused looking at him and spoke in a lower tone. "But I didn't think the father of my baby would like that" She raised her brow, she had been so tempted to say boyfriend but they hadn't defined anything as of yet and she was just happy being around him.

Haley looked from Peyton to Lucas and laughed. It was weird how everything was working out for the two of them, considering their history. They had never been able to get together in the past because it seemed like fate just kept intervening but now, with Peyton pregnant …they seemed happy and together. It was nice, she was happy for the two of them. "What don't you guys just make it official already?" She said before walking away, this week all Lucas could talk about was having a relationship with Peyton, and wanting to be with Peyton…not just as the father of their baby but more.

Peyton turned and watched as Haley walked away, she turned back and looked at Lucas and laughed. "Okay – uh…" She didn't really know where to go from there.

"Haley's right…we should, you know…make it official." He had just said it as though it was a spur of the moment thing when in reality he had been thinking of it ever since the summer, the two of them…together. Exclusively

Peyton raised her brow curiously at Lucas, "Yeah…maybe we should." Peyton and Lucas both turned around hearing Whitey call Lucas's name, telling him to get over there. Peyton smirked, "Try not to suck too much." She said playfully before turning around and walking over to the bleachers. She was just going to sit and watch the game.

Lucas watched her go and smiled to himself, there was the Peyton Sawyer that he had admired from afar for so long. She was sarcastic, funny and suggestive and he loved that side of her. He turned around and ran over to join the rest of the basketball team.

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The basketball game had just finished; Lucas's team had won by three points against Nathan's. The teams left the court and made their way over to the refreshments table. Lucas didn't join them, instead he turned and made his way over to the bleachers. He looked up and saw Peyton, she was sat at top listening to her Ipod. He climbed the bleachers and sat next to her, "Hey…what are ya listening to?"

Peyton turned and looked at him, pulling the earphones out from her ears. She showed Lucas her Ipod screen it read; Fatboy Slim: Right Here, Right Now That was another good thing about Lucas and her; the shared the same interest, they liked the same music and they could just talk for hours on end when she wasn't being her usual shut off self. Wrapping her headphone wires around her Ipod she placed it inside her bag and pulled out a bottle of water she turned and handed it to Lucas. "Here…"

Lucas took the bottle, "Thanks." He uncapped the bottle and took a sip from it, his eyes never leaving Peyton's face. He screwed the bottle cap back on and handed it back to her. All throughout the game, all he could think about was those words she had said to him before, that maybe they should. "So-" He let out a deep sigh, "Things have been good this week right, between us?"

Peyton turned and looked at Lucas and smirked, "No need to work your way into it." She said honestly, the pregnancy had made her a little more upfront than she had been before. She rolled her eyes, "You wanna be with me…"

Lucas laughed at her frankness. "Yeah I do…" He paused and looked into her emerald coloured eyes and his smile faded as he looked at her, "and you wanna be with me…" He said it almost just as she had done, as a statement but he was a little less sure of her than she obviously had been of him.

Peyton nodded, "Yeah…" She said quietly. "So – I guess we're together then." Peyton smiled as Lucas touched the side of her face, as he always did when he was being intimate or when he wanted to kiss her. He would cup her face, she knew the signs by now. She leaned in and met his lips and kissed him, her hands pressing against his chest as they kissed.

Nathan turned around and looked for Lucas, he looked up into the bleachers and saw him kissing Peyton. Okay – so that was a new one. Last he had heard, Lucas and Brooke had just broken up and now he was making out with Peyton? It was about time – he knew the two of them belonged together, he knew it when he was dating Peyton. He smiled and turned his attentions over to Haley who was standing by the stage ready to go on and perform. His smile faded as he saw Chris Keller walk up behind Haley, what the hell was going on. Since when was metrosexual boy back in town. That little punk ass was the reason that he and Haley had separated…he could feel the anger building up inside of him.

Haley felt someone's hand rest on her hip, she smiled thinking that it was Nathan. As she turned around and saw Chris her smiled disappeared. She took a step away from his touch and looked up at him, "Chris…what are you doing here?" Haley turned and looked around to see if she could see Nathan anywhere, not wanting him to see Chris here and get the wrong idea…but apparently Nathan had already seen the two of them, he was making his way over to them. "Nathan…I can-" She was about to say explain but didn't get the chance to as Nathan grabbed a hold of Chris's shirt and threw him back against the wall.

"Stay away from my wife." Nathan blurted out, he hadn't intended to go over. He hadn't intended to say anything – Haley wasn't his wife anymore, but he couldn't help himself. Male pride, instinct or whatever it was just took over. He let go of Chris's shirt and took a step back, "I'd leave if I were you."

Chris smirked, "Well you're not me." He sighed he was tired of brainless macho jocks like Nathan Scott. "If you were, you would have managed to keep a hold of your wife…" He said back to Nathan, he always had a smart mouth and couldn't help himself.

Nathan went to throw a punch at Chris but was pulled back by Lucas who was holding him back. He turned and looked around the gymnasium, everyone had come over to see the commotion. Breaking himself free of Lucas's grip, he held his hands up in the air and looked at Chris. He turned and looked at Haley before turning around and making his way through the crowd. He stormed out of the gymnasium.

Lucas looked over to Chris and shook his head, he then turned and looked at Haley who was about to go after Nathan. He took a step in front of her and rested a hand on her shoulder. "Let him cool off…"

Haley looked up at Lucas and nodded. She had wanted to follow Nathan out, to try and explain to him…but she knew Lucas was right, it was better to let Nathan cool down first. She couldn't help but think that by Nathan's reaction, by his act of jealousy that he was still in love with her…she didn't really have much hope before for the two of them, for reconciliation, but now…now she had hope.

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Brooke began to pack up her booth, she had made a record $900 bucks from kissing guys. One guy from the grade below had actually paid for ten tickets to have ten kisses. It was sweet to think that someone who pay to kiss her. She closed the cash box and stepped around from the booth, seeing Nathan walk into the empty gymnasium. "Hey Nate…I made 900 bucks tonight"

Nathan looked around the gymnasium, the place was quiet. He turned back and looked at Brooke and nodded, "Hmm, I thought you would have made more." He responded, Brooke was popular and she was gorgeous to look at. It was no secret that most of the guys in school like her to look at her, he was one of them. He sat down at the table and looked out over to the stage.

Brooke sat beside Nathan, holding onto the cash box. She turned and looked over to the stage. She had saw everything that went down earlier, Nathan grabbing that cute music hick by the neck and telling him to basically get lost. "How are you doing?"

Nathan shrugged, "I don't know…" He was confused inside. He was still in love with Haley there was no denying that, but lately he had been having more than friendly feelings for Brooke. "Seeing that guy…just brought everything back, all of last year and everything…" Nathan sighed, saddened.

Brooke turned and looked at Nathan, she half smiled. She leaned up and wrapped an arm around his neck, just as Peyton had done to her earlier. "Just remember how far you've come Nate…" She said looking out over to the stage, "Last year you were a train wreck and now you're getting your life back on track. Don't let that punk ass little musician wannabe get you down."

Nathan turned and looked at Brooke and smiled, he was grateful for her being there.

Brooke smirked, "See I'm a good friend to have!" She stood up from the booth and looked around the empty gymnasium and turned back to look at Nathan, "Come on Scott, you can escort to me to the principles office to hand over this pretty little box filled with cash."

Nathan laughed and stood up, following Brooke across the gymnasium.

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Peyton opened the car door to Lucas's truck and stepped outside. She looked up the Roe House, she had gotten familiar with the house in the past week and the routine. Karen usually woke up at 6am and left for work by 6.30 but before that she always had a cup of coffee and left a hot tea for Peyton in the morning. Peyton turned and watched as Lucas walked around the front of the car and joined her. She looked into his baby blues and smiled as she felt his hand intertwine with hers. They walked across the lawn towards the house. "Oh…um, I have an ultrasound appointment tomorrow..." She said, she had completely forgot; a few weeks back when she had first gone to the doctors they had made another appointment with her…to do an ultrasound and as she found out by looking up on the net, she could find out the sex of their baby.

Lucas nodded, "Okay…what time do we have to be there?"

Peyton beamed, he said we. It was the little things that matter, like the hand holding, the we's. It was perfect. She turned and looked back to the porch of the house and saw two figures standing on the porch. She watched as Karen emerged from the shadows first. She then saw her father emerge next, she opened her mouth shocked. He was there…at Karen's? "Dad?"

**(A/N: Thanks for all the reviews, I love knowing what people think about my story and the direction I'm taking it in etc. Oh and how much did I love this weeks episode of One Tree Hill...it was just as peyton said, "Perfect" )**


	12. Acceptance Is The First Step

She had expected a lecture but ultimately she figured her father would understand, all of this time she had been more nervous of telling Karen about the pregnancy than telling her own father. Karen had been through the ringer before not too mention Karen had also put a lot of faith and trust upon her shoulders when Tric first opened. She honestly had thought what was happening right now would be the opposite way around; with Karen yelling and her father being the one to mediate…but finding out your daughter is pregnant, well that was obviously the key to getting Larry Sawyer, her father angry.

Larry paced the Roe's living room he had come home early to surprise his daughter only to be on the receiving end of a bigger surprise; his daughter was pregnant. Larry had wandered into Karen's Café earlier in the day to pick up a apple pie for desert – a little treat for him and Peyton – but as soon as he saw Karen's face, he knew something was up. So Karen had taken her life into her own hands by telling him that Peyton was pregnant, she added that she thought it was better coming from her that way the two of them could talk to the kids calmly and collectively. No chance. For the past half an hour he had given Lucas a few number of evil eyes while making a speech about how the two of them weren't ready, how they were too young to have a child together and now he was just repeating himself. "Peyton you have a brilliant future ahead of yourself, do you really wanna give that up?" His voice was rose with each word, as though he wasn't asking her a question. "And what about you-" He said looking over to Lucas, "Are you ready to give up the next eighteen years of your life to look after a kid…when your still a kid." He looked from Peyton to Lucas and sighed, "You're both still kids. You can't handle the responsibility, how would you live? How would you support yourselves?" Larry turned and looked at Karen, the anger in his voice apparent. "…and I suppose you're okay with this?" He said harshly, he hadn't wanted to make it personal but the words just slipped out as they often did in the heat of the moment.

Karen shook her head, "I'm not okay with this…far from it actually..." She said honestly, she had tried to support Peyton this past week and it had been nice, to have another girl around the house. "But I'm not ranting and raving… throwing my arms around like a big ape!" Karen walked over to Larry and looked up at him. "A little support and understanding wouldn't go a miss, ya know!" This little scene had brought back so many memories of when she was pregnant with Lucas and how she told her parents, it wasn't a pleasant memory.

"How exactly am I supposed to understand? I go away for work and I come home and my teenage daughter is pregnant!" Larry looked over at Lucas and once again his evil glare rose to the surface. He had never felt this way before, he had never argued with anyone like this before. Usually he was a calm and collective, just as Karen had asked him to be earlier…he was like a duck, he would let water roll off of his back, but discovering his daughter was pregnant that was his boiling point. He ran his fingers through his hair and sighed and looked down at Lucas and Peyton who were sat beside one another. "Peyton…are you ready to give up your future? What about Lucas's future?" He turned around and looked at Karen, "This just isn't going to happen."

Karen sighed, pure self denial. Her father had been the same way when she told him she was pregnant, her mother was the more understanding of the two. "It is going to happen…it is happening." She looked over to Peyton, who was staring at the floor and then looked over at Lucas, who was holding Peyton's hand. Lucas had stood up and voiced his opinion when Larry challenged him but it seemed to do no good, Larry just wasn't ready to listen to anyone. "I got pregnant in high school – it wasn't the end of the world." She said, still arguing with Larry.

Larry looked down at Karen he respected her, everyone did. The whole town knew that Karen got pregnant in high school and had decided to raise the baby alone and along the way she managed to open a successful café. He argued back, "It was different back then…"

"Stop it! Just stop it!" Peyton stood up. She was tired of listening to them argue, she was tired of listening them talk about her as though she wasn't even in the room. Her father had mentioned all of her fears, about giving up her future, about stopping Lucas from living his…all of her self doubt was back, but for some reason it didn't make her cower off into a corner as she usually would – instead it made her stand up for herself. "Stop talking at me!" She yelled at her father, "Don't you think this has been hard enough for me, you've just said everything that I've been fearing for these past seven weeks…about giving up my life, about destroying Lucas's future." She was on the verge of tears, but the anger inside her was too much "and you know what, I don't know where or how we're going to live, I don't know what we're going to do…but I thought that ultimately I would have my family's support" She paused looking at her dad, "I thought I would have yours." Peyton walked over to the door of the living room and opened it, she turned around and looked back at the two adults in the room. "You asked me earlier why I could possibly want to go through with this – that's the one question I can answer." She paused and looked down to the floor and shrugged. "I want to have a family." Looking back up, she looked over to her father "I want that feeling of being loved… of loving someone. It's all I've ever wanted and this baby - even though it may be an accident – it is wanted." Peyton turned around, walked out of the living room and immediately burst into tears. She had to get out of there.

Lucas stood up and looked from Karen to Larry and sighed. He turned and followed Peyton.

Larry's face softened for the first time since he strolled into the Roe house. He had been too consumed with his own thoughts about everything he had been too consumed with thinking about how they would deal with it that he had completely forgotten to even think about how it all was effecting his teenage daughter on the inside.

Karen sighed and looked over at Larry, noticing the defeated look in his face. She slowly made her way over to him, "Well I think that went well." She said trying to lighten the mood.

Larry looked down at Karen with a frown before a small smile appeared on his face. He walked over to the couch where Lucas and Peyton had been sitting and sat down. "I think my teenage daughter just emotionally outgrew me." He said. Peyton had always been mature for her age, he had trusted her enough to go away on business but he never thought that she was so emotionally cut off. He wanted to say that he thought he was a bad father, but he wasn't. He did what he had to do to support his family; which was what Peyton was obviously trying to do herself.

Peyton was already half way down the street by the time Lucas caught up with her. He had called out her name a few times, trying to get her to come back to him but she wasn't listening. "Peyton…" Lucas watched as she stopped this time on hearing her name. He made his way up behind her, "Talk to me…" He said, resting his hands in his jean pockets. He figured that now wasn't the time for him to talk but rather to listen.

Peyton turned around, her face streaming with tears. Her head physically hurt from all of the crying she had done within the past few minutes, she wanted to close her eyes and just go to sleep to numb the pain. Shrugging, "What do you want me to say? I think my dad summed it all up, perfectly don't you?" She added harshly.

Lucas took his hands out of his pocket. Today had been the best and worst day that he could remember. Finally he and Peyton were a couple, they had made it official…that was obviously the good part, the worst part was knowing how Peyton was feeling right there and then. "Peyton…I don't know what to tell you. I don't know what the future holds for us, I'm not going to lie. It will be hard, I know that…but I also know that we can handle this. Together!"

Peyton looked up into Lucas's eyes and immediately felt the comfort he was giving her. "We can?" She asked, doubting him. How would they live? Would she still go to school until she physically couldn't? Was she going to be able to graduate? What would they live on? Her mother had set up a trust fund for her and she could only take from it when she turned 18…which, was soon but there wasn't enough in there to keep the two of them afloat not for as long as they would need to. "Lucas – how is this ever gonna work?" She looked up into his eyes pleading for an answer that would wipe away all of her fears.

"With family supporting you..." Peyton and Lucas both turned and looked down the street, Larry was standing there looking at the two of them. Larry took a few more steps closer to the young couple and watched as Lucas wrapped an arm around Peyton's waist. He couldn't help but smile, the kid may have knocked his daughter up but he was still there, supporting her. "We can get through this as a family."

Peyton frowned, tears falling down the side of her cheeks. She bit her bottom lip and walked away from Lucas's grip, she walked up to her father and threw her arms around his neck. "I'm sorry daddy." She said barely above a whisper. She was sorry that she had disappointed her father, it was every kids worst nightmare to disappoint their parents.

"Me too kiddo!" Larry wrapped his arms around Peyton's back, hugging her. She was still his little girl, no matter how old she was, no matter how grown up she acted…she was still his little girl and it was his duty as her father to look out for her, so that's exactly what he was gonna do. They were gonna go back inside and hash things out, see what was going to be done.

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Brooke walked up the stairs and stepped inside of Tric. The place was busy, it was literally heaving with students. Nights at Tric were always fun, it was a good way to socialise with friends while listening to live bands. Tonight she hadn't brought any alcohol with her and she didn't intend on sweet talking the bartender into giving her a cocktail. No…tonight she was alcohol free! To go with her new attitude of not drinking at a club, she had also gone with a new look, more casual. She was dressed in a pair of denim jeans and an off the shoulder black top. Her long brown hair clipped up with an antique-like butterfly clip with a few strands of hair hanging loose. Her eyes scanned the club, looking for a familiar face. She paused, seeing Nathan in the distance sitting on one of the sofas. Slowly she made her way over, "Are you stalking me?" She asked playfully.

Nathan looked up and saw Brooke standing in front of him. He wasn't stalking her, they just happened to be in the same places at the same time. A smirk appeared on his face, "No…actually, I'm thinking you're stalking me. First at the charity event…and now at Tric, admit it Davis – you're into the Scott!" He joked.

Brooke rolled her eyes, "The Scott?" She shook her hand and sat on the sofa next to him, looking out into the crowd. "You really need to stop hanging out with Tim, he's making you sound dumber…" She turned and looked at him, raising her brow. "If that's even possible…." Brooke smirked, looking out into the crowd once more. She enjoyed her banters with Nathan, there was always a sense of humour between the two of them…with a hint of flirting. "So where is the posse tonight? You didn't come alone, did you?"

Nathan shook his head, he hadn't come alone. The only reason he had decided to come tonight was because Tim had called him earlier saying that the team were going out to Tric, to hang out and after the day he had, with almost knocking out the Keller-ass, he needed to just chill. "Did you come alone?" He retorted.

Brooke turned and looked at him, shrugging. "Yeah – you see cool kids like me don't need backup. I'm a one woman show!" She smiled, her eyes glancing up to Nathan's. Over this past summer she had found herself looking into his pretty blue eyes when they would just hang out, he had pretty eyes she had never really noticed before. Looking past Nathan she saw Haley off to the corner, "Hey tutor girl…"

Nathan turned and looked behind him, seeing Haley who in turn, turned and looked at Nathan and Brooke.

"Over here!" Brooke waved her over. Even though Nathan and Haley weren't back together, they were still friends or so Nathan had said. Brooke watched as Haley nervously made her way over to the two of them. "What's the deal, you working those throat pipes of yours tonight?" She asked, meaning was Haley going to be singing tonight.

Haley shook her head, "Are you kidding?" She smiled and sat down on the couch opposite Brooke and Nathan. "I barely got through my set this afternoon…" Which was true she had stumbled a few times with words because of her nerves, maybe it was just pure nerves about playing in front of her peers or maybe it was because five minutes before she was due to go on stage her former husband got into a scuffle with Chris Keller. She sighed, trying not to think about it. Haley looked over at Nathan, he looked so good in that baby blue shirt. It really brought out his eyes. "Um, so any idea who's playing tonight?"

Brooke shrugged, "No idea, hopefully some young talented male hottie that I can try and seduce after!" She joked. She had no intention of going home with any guys tonight or even making eyes at any guys. For the moment, she was purely satisfied with just looking…looking at Nathan Scott. Speaking of, she turned and looked at the quiet Scott who was looking out into the crowd, not really paying attention.

Haley sat back in the couch, awkward was the word for how she was feeling right now. Things between Nathan and her had been slightly better these past few weeks – she hadn't brought up the topic of getting back together fearing it was still too soon, which by today's events maybe she was wrong. Haley turned and looked around the club and sighed seeing Rachel slowly making her way over to the threesome.

"Hey gang!" Rachel stopped directly in front of Nathan, hoping to get his attention. She was wearing low black leather pants and a black halter which boosted her cleavage. Tonight was all about seeing who she could take home…and for the past ten minutes her eyes had been focused on Nathan. "Well don't you guys look like the life of the party." She said sarcastically as she bent down, so she could be closer to Nathan. "So Nathan…nice game today!"

"Yeah it was a good time…too bad he lost!"

Rachel sighed and stood back up, she hadn't forgotten that voice. Turning around she looked at Peyton Sawyer, the girl who seemed to have it in for her…and now she knew why. Peyton was here with Lucas, Rachel had been stepping on some toes. Okay, so the blonde Scott is taken, she thought, but the dark haired Scott isn't. "Right…well I guess you're my cue to leave." Rachel tilted her head and smirked at Peyton, she turned back and looked at Nathan. "Save me a dance later, cutie!" Rachel winked and walked off, leaving the little gang to mingle with each other.

Peyton half laughed, "So I didn't know the theme was white trash" She said referring to Rachel's outfit. Maybe she was being harsh, but the new girl had been flaunting her stuff all around school ever since she showed up. Peyton turned and looked at Lucas and smiled as she let go of his hand and walked around the couch and sat beside Haley.

"Aw I've missed you P Sawyer!" Brooke stated, she had missed Peyton's sarcastic comments. This week she had barely seen her knocked up best friend so naturally she was happy to see Peyton back in old stomping grounds "Although tonight you're sticking to juice, my friend!" She joked without thinking. Opps, no one was supposed to know. Brooke looked over at Peyton, expecting a death stare or some kind of reaction but nothing. Brooke raised her brow, curiously. She looked over at Lucas and watched as he walked around the couch and sat on the arm rest beside Peyton. Brooke tilted her head and watched as his hand grazed Peyton and she smiled, it was sweet.

"Okay am I missing something?" Nathan asked, just now paying attention to what was going on within their little section of the club. He had completely zoned out when Rachel was trying to flirt with him but now he was paying attention, full attention. Lucas and Peyton, were together? He raised his finger and pointed at the two of them. "Since when did you too hook up?" Why was he so interested? Peyton was his friend, she had been his girlfriend at one stage and he still loved her though not in that way…but more so, because it meant that Brooke was single. Brooke and Haley were both single…and they were both girls he was interested in.

Peyton smiled and looked up at Lucas and then back down. She slowly turned her head back and looked over at Nathan. "Since your big brother knocked me up!" Peyton Sawyer, classic one liner was back.

Nathan shook his head, "Wait…what?"

Peyton shrugged and looked across the table at Brooke, "Yeah and now both parents know, good times!" She said mockingly. It was a good thing that both of their parents knew, it was a lot of weight lifted off of her shoulder…but it was seeing the look in her father's eyes, the look of disappointment on his face was something she wished she hadn't seen. After her father came out and said they could get through this together as family, the three of them, Lucas, Peyton and her father went back inside the Roe house and talked things through, how we were going to manage. It was discussed that both Lucas and herself would finish school and see where things go from there, but until then Peyton's dad was going to finically support them, her and the baby.

Brooke opened her mouth shocked, "Oh my god!"

Haley turned and looked at Peyton also shocked, "Stupid question…but I'm taking that by the sarcasm in your voice it didn't go well?"

Peyton turned and looked at Haley, "Yeah, apparently telling your father that you're pregnant at seventeen is a big no no!" Peyton sighed, "But things are fine now." She said, things weren't really fine but they were slowly getting there.

"Hold up…I'm still lost." Peyton was pregnant with Lucas's baby? Since when had they been a couple? When did they hook up.

Brooke rolled her eyes, "You're gonna be an uncle numbnuts!"

Peyton gripped Lucas's hand and intertwined their fingers all while looking at Nathan. "Yeah, so no more acting like an ass, okay?" Peyton opened her mouth wide with a smirk. Peyton looked back to Lucas and smiled at him, as he leaned down and kissed her on the forehead. "I need a drink…" Peyton stood up and turned around to be confronted by a now standing Nathan. She frowned at him, "Uh.."

Nathan wrapped his arms around Peyton and hugged her. Even though he thought getting pregnant at seventeen was completely stupid – not that he could really judge, after all he was married and divorced by the age of seventeen. Honestly though he was happy for her, she deserved to be happy and she seemed happy. Nathan turned and looked at Lucas and walked up to him, a hug wasn't really in the cards. So instead he extended his hand, offering a handshake.

"Aw, Sawyer hug!" Brooke watched as Nathan and Peyton parted and then stepped forward and hugged Peyton. She took a step back and watched as Haley stood up and proceeded to hug Peyton. Brooke turned around and looked at Nathan and Lucas, who had just finished their hand shake. She walked over and looked up at Lucas, "Congratulations…" She said looking up into those baby blue eyes she had once dreamed of. Reaching up she wrapped her arms around Lucas's neck and hugged him. "Look after my girl!" She whispered into his ear.

Lucas smiled and nodded. He had every intention of looking after Peyton and their child.

---------------

It was strangely comfortable lying on the doctors little bed. Her body was covered in a white dressing gown – like the ones you see in movies and on TV. She leant back and looked up at her father standing at her head. She then turned and looked at Lucas standing on her right, he was holding her hand and Karen was standing beside him. She smiled nervously, she had never thought that she would be here…they would be here, all together.

"Okay, are you ready Peyton?" The doctor asked taking a seat next to the sonogram machine.

"Guess so…"

"Alright, well this might feel a little odd." She had already applied the gel to Peyton's stomach and now she was going to scan for the heartbeat, for the baby. She moved the apparatus over Peyton's body and rolled it over her stomach area…stopping seeing the foetus and hearing a heartbeat. She stopped and looked over to the monitor and smiled. She used her free hand and pointed at the screen, "There's your baby" She said turning to look at the family in the room. It wasn't the first young girl who had walked through her door pregnant and she certainly wasn't going to be the last. "Would you like to know the sex of the baby?"

Peyton was still reeling that on the screen she could vaguely make out the outline of what her baby looked like, right there and then. She had felt Lucas's grip tighten on her hand, she turned and looked around the room quickly, from Larry to Karen and finally to Lucas. She smiled, she felt like crying from happiness but didn't. Nodding to him, she turned back and looked at the monitor.

"Yeah" He said trying to catch his breath, it felt as though he was speechless. "We would like to know." Lucas said looking at the doctor.

**(A/N: It was a quick update because I've finished some school work, yay! Anyways, my story is purely for angst and fluff - I know things would be way more complicated out in the real world, but it's Tree Hill World. Anyways, would love suggestions as to what sex you think the baby should be - I can't quite decide. Also, Naley or Brathan...it's going to go one way soon, still deciding haha! Oh and no, we havent seen the last of Chris Keller. Is there any more characters you want to see more of/have introduced::: Trouble is ahead...)**


	13. Who Knew

Peyton stared at the computer screen in front of her with the punk'd and disorderly website as the main focus. She leaned across the desk and turned the switch on her webcam to on and sat back down, with her back pressed against the back of the chair. Now in the center of the screen was her reflection, the webcam acted like a mirror. She just stared straight ahead for a moment, taking in everything. Raising her hand to the desk, she moved the mouse and clicked the button to record and was about to say something when an IM popped up. She moved the mouse over and clicked on the IM:

**Lucas: **Welcome back

Peyton smiled, half an hour ago the Roe family and the Sawyer family had been having lunch in Karen's Café after having had the ultra sound. They were celebrating – well, celebrating was probably the wrong word but it was the only one that sprang to mind. The doctor had told them the baby looked healthy and had then asked if they wanted to know the sex of the baby. They did…and so they were told. Peyton looked down at the keyboard and began tapping away at the keys in a response.

**Peyton: **Hmm, I guess we've gone back to stalking, huh?

Lucas watched the response and smiled. He was sitting on his bed with his laptop resting on his legs. Back when they were just getting to know one another, two years ago he had done the same thing as he was doing now – watching her webpage, only now things were different. He had the girl.

**Lucas: **I never stalked you – I was observing you from a distance.

Peyton laughed and shook her head.

"What's so funny?"

Peyton turned around and saw her father standing in the doorway, he was leaning against the wall with his legs crossed and his arms folded across his chest. "Nothing…" She said, turning on her chair slightly. She looked at him and raised a brow, "So when you leaving?" She asked instinctively. As soon as they walked through the door, the phone rang and she had a gut feeling that it was her father's work so she left him to talk as she made her way up to her room.

Larry sighed and unfolded his arms, it seemed that his daughter knew him a whole lot better than he knew her, "I'm not." He paused and looked at Peyton, who seemed confused by his answer. "This was only supposed to be a quick stop over – a surprise visit…but after everything that's happened I think it would be best if I stayed."

Peyton stood up from the chair and walked over to her father, stopping arms length away from him. "I'll be fine." She said honestly, just because she was pregnant didn't mean that she no longer knew how to take care of herself. "Besides, I'm eating for two now so we really need the money!" She joked playfully.

Larry tilted his head at his daughter, "I know but-"

"No buts!" She said cutting him off. Rolling her eyes she gently smiled up at him, "Besides if last week is anything to go by, I'll have Karen watching me like a hawk!" Peyton took a step closer to her father and wrapped her arms around his neck, embracing him. "I'll keep my webcam on."

Larry leaned into his daughter's hug and sighed. He didn't want to go, he didn't like leaving his daughter home alone but now it was even worse – now he was leaving his pregnant daughter home alone but he now more than ever he felt like he had to work – he had a daughter and future grandchild to support so the more money the better in his eyes, at least if they were financially stable when the baby was born then maybe they could get a nanny to come in and baby sit while Peyton was at school. Or at least that was his plan, they hadn't discussed exactly what would happen when the baby was born but he still wanted his daughter to get a proper education and to have a real chance at a life. "I'll be back in two weeks." He said pulling back from the hug, watching her. "and I'll phone every day just to make sure your fine…and I'll be phoning Karen too."

Peyton nodded, "When are you leaving?"

"I'll call Mark – and he'll swing on by and pick me up." He said, referring to his friend Mark who worked the boats with him.

Peyton turned her back to her father. The truth was she wanted him to stay, she wanted her daddy to take care of her but she knew that by having him here he would worry too much and be too overprotective which was something she really didn't want right now. Walking across her bedroom back to her desk, she picked up the brown paper folder and walked back over to her father. "Here…" She opened the folder and took out one of the sonogram picture's that was inside. "I want you to take this…" She said with a smile, "You can hang it up next to my picture or something…show it off to riggers" She said in a more masculine voice, "If you're not too embarrassed about having a pregnant seventeen year old daughter." She added, a hint of vulnerability in her voice.

Larry smiled and took a hold of the sonogram picture, "I'd be proud…" He knew from Peyton's outburst yesterday that she was more emotionally scared than he thought she was, "But you – you take care of yourself, okay?"

Peyton rolled her eyes, "I promise!" She said, a smile still planted on her face.

Larry nodded and turned around, walking out of his bedroom to phone Mark and to pack up his things.

Peyton's smile faded instead a melancholy look shadowed her face. She turned and walked over to the desk, placing the folder down. You're doing the right thing, she told herself. It was better this way – if she needed someone to talk to, Karen was there like she had been this past week. Sighing she sat down on the chair and looked back at the computer screen, seeing Lucas's newest IM.

**Lucas:** Everything okay?

Peyton sighed and shook her head which she followed with a nod. The webcam had been on and Lucas had obviously seen what had just happened. Peyton looked down at the keyboard and began to type again.

**Peyton:** Yeah, everything's fine.

----

Everything was finally how it was supposed to be, it looked perfect. Brooke smiled pleased with herself as she slowly circled her room. The colour of the walls, the new furniture – the layout was just as she wanted it. Last year had been the worst year of her life – her father had gone bankrupt and she was no longer little miss moneybags. Sure it sounded shallow but it wasn't, the material things she owned she had grew up with – they all had sentimental values and memories. Selling them broke her heart…but now that her father was back on his feet and in the money so to speak, she was living it large again. Making sure she didn't squander what she had. The door bell rang, she looked out of the bedroom. "Mom!" She waited, no answer. Sighing, she turned and walked out of her bedroom and skipped down the stairs to the front door. Opening it, she saw the one and only Nathan Scott standing before her. "Hmm," She looked from left to right before looking back up at him. "No girl scout cookies?" She said with a grin.

"Nah – I gave my uniform back to Felix last year!" He said honestly, Dare Night had been embarrassing to say the least, it was funny looking back but still embarrassing. "Funny, thought he used it with you!" He joked back.

Brooke rolled her eyes, "Aw, Nathan you're not funny so you really shouldn't attempt jokes!" Brooke let out a deep sigh and bit her bottom lip. "So let's skip the banter – so what is Nathan Scott doing on my doorstep on a Sunday afternoon?" She was secretly hoping that he wouldn't respond to that question, at least not verbally. These past few weeks she had been having feelings towards him – romantic feelings.

Nathan smiled gently at her, "I thought we could hang out…" Honest and simple. He had enjoyed Brooke's company over the summer, they had gotten close as friends and he felt like he could talk to her about anything – well almost anything; not the feelings he was having for her. He knew that they were just friends and that was fine, because he was conflicted inside. He liked Brooke but he was still in love with Haley, which was proven yesterday by his jealous rampage of throwing Chris Keller against the gymnasium wall. "Like old times," He joked.

Brooke smirked, "Well come on in then friend!" Brooke took a step back away from the door and watched as he walked into her new house and whistled. "I know, sweet digs right?" She smirked shutting the door behind him. Walking past him, she made her way down the hallway and entered the sitting room, which was in itself was huge. "My mom's happily spending my dad's new found money…and I'm not complaining." She said making her way over to the couch.

Nathan followed Brooke and nodded. The house was beautiful, it was about the same size as his but it was a lot more …modern and feminine. A mirror hanging above the fire place, flowers by the window. It had a woman's touch. He sat down at the other end of the couch, looking across at Brooke and smirked. "Maybe you're mom should become an interior decorator."

Brooke scoffed, "Are you kidding me? Boozy become an interior decorator?" Brooke sighed and lifted her legs up onto the couch. She leant back against the side of the couch and smiled looking around. "I designed the layout – mommy dearest just paid for the decorators." Brooke looked over at Nathan, she knew that he hadn't really just come by to hang out – there was something more driving him to see her. "So Nate – let's get naked!" She said with made her smirk.

Nathan looked at her and raised a brow, "What?"

Brooke closed her eyes, embarrassed. She shook her head, "I meant to say." She opened her eyes and bashfully smiled at him. "Let's get to the naked truth…" She wasn't usually one to get embarrassed but somehow her school girl like crush on Nathan was obviously having an impact on her. "You didn't come by just to hang with little ol' me…" She paused, "You came here to talk about Haley." She said intuitively.

Nathan turned and looked at her shocked, he had wanted to talk about Haley but that wasn't the reason he came over. "How did you know I've been thinking about Haley?"

Brooke shrugged, "I don't know…I guess over the summer, I got to know you. Crazy, huh!" She said jokingly. "Do you want my honest opinion Nate?" Brooke watched as Nathan nodded, "I think you should give her another chance. Everyone makes mistakes and it's obvious that you're still in love with her." It was clear and that hurt a little. "Why are you holding back?"

Why was he holding back? That was a good question…was it just purely because he felt attracted to Brooke? No, that was a part of the reason. The real reason he was holding back was because he was scared and he didn't think it would be fair to get back together with Haley when he wasn't sure his whole heart was going to be in it. Two years ago, he would have…but he was different now and she had changed him for the better, so he couldn't do that to her. He couldn't get back together with Haley until he knew for sure that she was the one he wanted to be with.

-------

Haley wandered out of Karen's Café, she had just finished her shift. Lucas and Peyton had been in earlier with both of their parents. Haley had found out from Lucas that the sonogram went smoothly and they knew the sex of their baby. It made her think about what was important and all through the rest of her shift she hadn't thought of anything else. Walking across the street, she saw Keith pacing the path ahead. Slowly she made her way up to him, with a knowing grin on her face. "Nervous?"

Keith turned and looked at Haley and smirked, "That obvious huh?" He looked down at the flowers he was holding in his hands.

Haley nodded, "Oh yeah." She teased, in the past she had hung out with Keith at the Roe house on the nights she used to go over and visit Lucas. "Well you know what they say…"

Keith raised a brow, curiously and waited for Haley to finish the sentence. "…What do the say?"

Haley shrugged, "I don't know!" She grinned and walked up to the side of Keith, looking up at him from the corner of her eye. "She's in the kitchen!" She reached up and patted his shoulder twice before walking away down the street. It seemed that everyone was coupling up lately, having their happily ever afters…Lucas and Peyton, Karen and Keith. She wondered if she would ever have that again, but even more so she wondered if she really deserved it. Haley slowed her pace seeing Chris ahead, making his way towards her. "Here to cause more trouble?"

Chris smirked and shook his head, "No…I just came to apologise."

Haley looked at him, she was confused. She had never heard Chris utter an apology before what was so special this time. "Mmm…" She hummed, disbelievingly.

Chris held his hands up in defence his cocky smile faded, "I'm sorry Haley…I agreed to sing yesterday because I knew that it would cause trouble!" He admitted. "But you don't have to worry about me causing trouble anymore…the bus leaves tonight." He watched Haley nod before trying to step past him. Stepping to his right, he stepped in front of her.

"Chris…"

"Haley I am sorry." Chris looked down at her, his eyes filled with remorse. "I came here to tell you I was sorry and that I never had intended telling Nathan about what happened between us…I wouldn't do that to you!" Chris turned around and a little way down the street before turning back to look at a dumbfounded Haley, "If I were you…I wouldn't tell him, there's no point in causing heartache." Chris smiled and turned back around, walking back the way he had come.

Haley stood there speechless. Chris Keller had just apologised to her which was a first…and he had also given her advice on her love life. What was the world coming to? All day she had thought about telling Nathan – if she told him it would probably ruin any chance they had of getting back together but if she didn't tell him, she would have to live with the guilt. Either way she lost.

----

Peyton tapped gently on the door before turning the handle and pushing it open. She walked inside of Lucas's bedroom and saw him sitting on the bed with the laptop resting on his lap, just as she had pictured he would be. "Hey!"

Lucas looked up and over to the door and smiled seeing Peyton, "Hey…I wondered where you got to." He said refereeing to her sudden disappearance from her computer.

Peyton held up the brown paper folder, "Well thought I drop this by…" She said referring to the sonogram. She walked across his room and placed it down on his desk. She sighed and turned back to face him he had just moved the laptop from his lap to the floor. Slowly she made her way over to the bed and sat down beside Lucas. She shuffled her body down further on the bed and rested her head against his chest.

Lucas smiled, he liked it when Peyton was like this…when she was emotionally open to him. Running a hand through her blonde hair he leaned down and kissed her forehead. "I still can't believe…that in seven months we're going to have a daughter."

Peyton smiled and looked up at Lucas, her head still resting on his head. "I know…" It still hadn't sunk in, they were going to have a little girl. "Hopefully she'll take after you…cause my mood swings in a girl, not good!" She joked. Truthfully she hoped that their baby would be more like Lucas because she admired Lucas so much, he was smart and sensitive.

Lucas scoffed "Are you kidding me, I'm hoping she's the pure embodiment of her mother!" Lucas smiled looking down into Peyton's glimmering emerald coloured eyes. Peyton had her fault sure, they all did but to him she was perfect. Beautiful and smart, he had been in love with her since he could remember. Why wouldn't he want their little girl to be like her. "I love you, Peyt…"

**(A/N: Nothing much happened in this chapter. Obviously we found out the sex of the baby - but like Mark said, just when things seem perfect - thats when the world seems to fall apart. Hope you all liked it, and thanks for the reviews. Love them...and those who wanted the baby to be a boy, I am sorry ...just did it by votes. )**


	14. A Kink In The Knot

Peyton had been in and out of the principal's office this past week and not for the same reasons she had in the past. The reason she was in the principals office was to discuss the protocol for how to continue studying at the school as a pregnant student; which came as a slight shock to Peyton as she hadn't told the principal that she was pregnant, she had only told Lucas; naturally as he's the father of the baby girl growing inside of her womb; their parents and close friends. She had been worried that someone might have talked; let it slip but thankfully Peyton discovered that her father phoned the principal and let him in on the situation. An hour later and she finally emerged from the principals office, having missed first period yet again. Finally after a week of discussions and negotiations between the two they had finally settled on a plan; she would continue her studies for as long as possible while doubling up on work. It was important for Peyton to graduate the same time as her friends, she had always imagined her graduation day – and because she let Lucas knock her up, that was in jeopardy...thinking of the cute blonde haired boy that had gotten her knocked up, Peyton saw him standing by her locker with Haley. Slowly she made her way over to the two of them, "So apparently there haven't been many knocked up cheerleaders in Tree Hill in the past, but thankfully we've finally come to an agreement on how it should all go."

Lucas looked down into Peyton's beautiful green eyes and lowered his head, waiting for an answer. "Well?" He had been concerned about her this past week, she had seemed stressed coming and going from the principal's office, he knew she was worried that people would find out and they would eventually – the sooner the better, he thought, at least then they wouldn't have to keep any more secrets.

Peyton shrugged, "Well because the little one here" She said pointing at her stomach rather obviously, "is due just before graduation and apparently I'm not going to be walking around, attending classes my last few weeks. So it was either continue as normal and then go to summer school and graduate later – or.." She paused and sighed, "double up on the work now, so I can graduate with you losers!"

Haley scoffed, "Hey!"

Peyton turned and looked at Haley with a slight smirk, "I didn't mean you, Haley."

Lucas looked at Haley and then turned back to Peyton, "Hey!" He shook his head, they had gotten back into their original routine of sarcastic, playful comments – most of them usually coming from Peyton. He wasn't going to lie, it was fun to be around Peyton when she was being like that. He sighed, "Wait – but doubling up on work now won't that mean more stress and aren't pregnant women meant to stay stress free?"

Peyton smiled sweetly at Lucas and leaned closer to him, wrapping an arm around his waist. "Aw, look at him Haley. He's my whipped puppy dog!" Peyton and Haley both laughed. Peyton looked up at Lucas and saw that his baby blues were filled with concern, "No – I won't be stressed. I'm already miles ahead in my art class and bio thanks to" She nodded in Haley's direction, "It just means I'm gonna have to cut down on after school stuff like – Tric."

Haley leaned against the locker looking at Peyton and Lucas, they were so adorable together, acting all couple-like. She missed being like that, being a part of a couple. "So does that mean tonight's Halloween party at Tric is you're last for a while?"

Peyton nodded and leant her head against Lucas's shoulder, looking over at Haley. "Yeah – but you know what they say, when you have to go out – go out on top." Peyton smirked knowingly. The party tonight at Tric was all down to Karen, naturally it was going to be busy on Halloween and it was only good business to open the club, so Peyton had started looking for bands to play several weeks ago; in fact she started looking when she first found out she was pregnant because it was a good way to keep busy and take her mind off of everything.

"So who's playing tonight?" Haley asked intrigue. The flyers only stated that there was a surprise band playing at the Halloween party.

"Mr Scott, Miss Sawyer and Miss James….aren't we supposed to be somewhere?" A teacher was standing at the door of a classroom, looking down the hallway at the three of them. He watched as the three of them nodded and then all parted ways, walking in separate directions.

--

Brooke was inside of the gymnasium, she was supposed to be in third period Spanish but had decided that working on the routine for the up and coming regionals would be far better time spent. Turning the sound on the boom box, she played the dance music louder nodding her head to the beat. She closed her eyes and began to concentrate; thinking of different steps that could start the routine. As she opened her eyes, she took a jump back seeing Nathan standing in the door way. Turning the sound down, she frowned at him. "Jeez – you're like the grim reaper, just standing there."

Nathan laughed and shook his head as he walked further into the gymnasium. "How is it every time I see you in school, you're always skipping classes?" He raised his brow curiously. It was true, their last few encounters within the school grounds had been during class time – just not in class.

Brooke placed her hands on her hips and tilted her head looking at him, "Doesn't that mean that you're skipping class too?" She raised her brow and smirked. Turning around she slowly made her way over to the bleachers and sat down. Patting the seat next to her, she indicated for him to join her. She watched as his body slowly walked over and sat beside her. Looking up into his cute blue eyes, she smiled gently. "So Nate – you heading to the Halloween party tonight?"

Nathan shrugged and frowned, creasing his nose. "Uh, fancy dress isn't really my thing. I'm sure Tim will be there though, dressed up in drag." He joked at Tim's expense. "I guess it's stupid asking whether or not you're going?"

Brooke nodded, "You know me so well." She thought back to summer, their long talks together about everything and anything. She thought back to just the other week when he had came to her house to just hang out – well hang out and talk about Haley. It slightly annoyed Brooke when he talked about Haley, sure she liked Haley but she also liked Nathan, more so than just a friend so it was only natural for her to get a little jealous. It didn't matter though, she knew her feelings were unfounded and that tutor girl and Nathan belonged together. She caught herself unknowingly staring into his eyes as her mind drifted off. She blushed and looked away quickly, "So you're not even going tonight to have a little ….what's the word, oh right yeah…f-u-n, remember that word?"

Nathan opened his mouth, acting shocked. "Please, I'm the king of fun."

Brooke nodded disbelievingly, "Right – so that's why you're gonna stay home tonight and play a little x-box huh?"

Nathan closed his eyes and shook his head, "You know me too well, Davis." She had got it spot on for what his plans were, he was going to stay in and play a little basketball on the good old x-box. Opening his eyes, he looked at Brooke and tilted his head, "You….know what, I can guarantee that playing a little NBA on the x-box is better than the usual Tree Hill party, where Tim will end up naked, Peyton and Lucas walk off into the sunset together singing the hills are alive with the sound of music and you'll be tripping down the stairs by midnight."

Brooke tucked her hair behind her ear and laughed, "Okay so the Tim thing, you hit that on the nail…the me thing, you probably also hit dead on the nail, but Lucas and Peyton singing the hills are alive with the sound of music?" She laughed, "I'm sorry imagery in my head." She sighed, "You've got too much time on your hands if your watching the sound of music." Brooke bit her bottom lip watching Nathan as he looked over to the set of double doors connecting the gymnasium to the rest of the school. "Well if you go tonight, you're almost definitely gonna score one skank…" She watched as Nathan turned back and looked at her confused, "Rachel, any interest there?"

Nathan shook his head, "No. I mean she seems….well I wanna say nice when she's not obviously throwing herself at me or the rest of the team." Nathan may have played dumb to Rachel's flirting but he knew what was going on, he had been a player once upon a time.

"and what about Haley? She'll probably be there..."

Nathan shrugged, "So?" True he and Brooke often talked of Haley and the possibility of the two of them getting back together but he was never usually the first one to bring it up. When it came to thinking of Haley, he was confused – he was still in love with her but he was still completely hurt by how and why she left him not to mention the romantic feelings he had been feeling for Brooke these past few months. Confusion and the love life, they always go hand in hand, he thought.

Brooke shook her head and sighed standing up from the bleachers, "You know Nate." She said turning back to look at him, folding her arms across her chest. Sure she liked Nathan but it was clearly obvious that he was still in love with Haley and everyone knew that Haley was still madly in love with him. She may have liked Nathan – but she wasn't going to try and compete with true love. "You really are a dumbass." Her tone changed, no longer pleasant but slightly harsh.

"I am?" He asked defensively as he stood up, looking down at her from his 6'2 stature.

"Yeah you are." She rolled her eyes, "Why don't you just put aside all of the crap and just get back together with her." She knew she was stepping over the line of friendship but something inside of her snapped and she knew what caused it, jealousy. "You know you want to, she wants to – you two are still in love so stop punishing her for the mistake she made. She's just like everyone else, sure she's a little smarter and little more quick with the sarcastic wit maybe" She paused knowing that she was getting off track. "What I'm trying to say is, stop breaking her heart – you might find that by taking a chance with her that you mend her heart and maybe in the process save your own as well."

Nathan sighed and threw his hands in the air, they were arguing. Actually arguing, he had never really argued with Brooke before. Well he had, but not when they really knew each other, not when they were friends. "Maybe she's not the own who's supposed to save my heart, did you ever think of that?" He blurted out. Shaking his head, he sighed. "Whatever, I gotta go…see you, later." He walked past Brooke and stormed out of the gymnasium.

--

Lucas ran from the basketball court towards the walk over bridge, decked out in a white t-shirt and running bottoms. He had missed his running session this morning and had wanted to get it in before the party tonight. It was important for him to stay in shape for the up and coming basketball season. This was their last year to give Coach Durham that championship trophy he had always wanted, the trophy his father, Dan had denied Whitey. He stopped suddenly and bent over in the middle of the bridge. A sharp pain hit his chest – it felt as though his chest was tightening and his heart was racing faster than it should. He raised his hands to the back of his head, taking in deep breaths. He had stopped taking his heart medication just before summer and everything had been fine, he hadn't felt any different than usual. He fell to his knees and felt as though at any moment he was going to cry, cry from the pain he was feeling, cry from the fact that his heart condition had finally caught up with, cry from that fact that he knew he couldn't tell anyone about this – it would ruin his basketball season not to mention worry too many people – especially his mother and Peyton…ah, Peyton. He especially couldn't tell her – it would put too much stress on her and could affect her health's and the baby's. No…he had to keep it a secret.

---

Peyton walked into Tric, she was dressed in a beautiful pale pink 40's dancing dress and her blonde hair was curled. She looked around the club – it was already busy at 8pm. Lucas was supposed to pick her up at 7.30, but he never showed. She had tried calling his cell but it was off. After her tenth phone call to the house, Karen picked up saying that she had just gotten in and that Lucas wasn't home. She said he was probably just running late and that she should head on over to the club anyways, she would send Lucas as soon as she saw him. So that's what she did and here she was, alone at Tric.

"Hello…. sexy momma!"

Peyton slowly turned to her left and saw Brooke walking up to her. Peyton was a little shocked at Brooke's outfit, she wasn't dressed in the usual provocative, slightly slutty outfit that she often wore but rather was dressed in a black suit with a white shirt and a black hat, her make up very minimal. "Wow – Brooke? You almost look like guy." She said playfully. "A good looking guy." She added.

Brooke grinned and tipped her hat for a moment at Peyton, "Thank you ma'm…I decided that there would probably too many trashy outfits like the red leather clad devil or catwoman." She turned and looked out of the corner of her eye at Rachel who was on the dance floor dressed as catwoman. Turning back to look at Peyton she smiled gently, "But totally loving you're outfit P.Sawyer, you look so pretty, so classy – so un-Peyton like!" She joked. Brooke looked around, "So where's dear daddy?"

Peyton folded her arms across her chest, "I don't know. He was supposed to pick me up but he never showed." Peyton couldn't help that sound of disappointment in her voice. She wanted to see Lucas's face when he saw her dressed as Baby from Dancing.

Brooke looked at Peyton for a split second with a look of concern before brushing it off with a smile, "Well I'm sure he probably just got held up practising with Nathan or something – I swear those basketball players are Neanderthals! Completely clueless" Brooke walked to Peyton's side and wrapped an arm over her shoulder, "Well Baby" She said in a deeper voice, trying to imitate a man's voice. "No one's putting you in the corner tonight." She referred to Peyton's costume, Baby from Dirty Dancing and winked at her.

Peyton laughed, "Why thank you, kind sir." The two of them slowly made their way through the club over to the dance floor. She was pregnant but that didn't mean that she couldn't have a little fun dancing with her best friend.

Haley slowly made her way to the club's entrance. She hadn't really intended to go tonight but after talking to Peyton and Lucas in school earlier they had convinced her that it would be a fun night. So it was either go to a club and try and have some fun with friends or stay at home and read a book, or pretend to read a book while she thinks about her messed up life; her loveless life. Naturally she had decided the first option would be better. It was so last minute so she hadn't really had time to dress up, instead she just threw on a white shirt and long black skirt, placed her hair in a bun and put on a pair of black framed glances and decided that a teacher was the way to go. She had thought of it as a non-sexual outfit, but apparently she was wrong. Making her way past the queue outside to the VIP entrance, several guys had whistled at her. Pigs, she thought to herself.

"Hales…"

Haley turned around and saw Lucas walk up behind her. She looked at him, he wasn't dressed up – he was dressed in a blue t-shirt and a pair of blue denim jeans. "Uh – I thought this party was fancy dress?" She asked, slightly annoyed that he had turned up dressed normally.

"It's optional…besides it was too late for me to get a costume." He said, lying. He had driven over to the costume store after his little episode early but it was closed. He had then driven over to Peyton's but she wasn't home.

"Optional?" Haley sighed, "Damn…if I had known that, I would have come as plain Jane to match your regular Joe average!" She paused and looked around, "Wait, where's Peyton? Is she feeling alright?"

Lucas shrugged, "I don't know…I was a little late getting to her house and she wasn't there, so I figured she came straight here."

Haley smiled at her best friend and bit her bottom lip, "Oh you're gonna be in trouble." She said playfully at him.

Lucas sighed and rolled his eyes, "Let's just go in – yeah?" He and Haley walked into club together. The place was completely packed out with people dressed in various costumes and the DJ's dance music was loud. He leaned on his tip toes slightly, looking around the club searching for Peyton – although that might be pointless, he thought to himself. He didn't even know what she was dressing up as.

"Over there…" Haley pointed to the lounge area where Brooke, Mouth and Peyton were sat. Haley and Lucas made their way past the dance floor and headed into the lounge. "Oooo Mouth, you're looking fly….for a white guy!" Haley joked, Mouth was obviously dressed up as eminem. It was actually quite funny to see him – a scrawny looking mouth dressed up in baggy pants and a baggy t-shirt with platinium blonde hair. "Did you dye your hair?"

Mouth nodded, "Wash in, wash out." He grinned. Brooke had complimented him earlier that he looked cute, not as cute as the regular mouth she said but cute. She had called him cute and for the past five minutes that's all he could think about.

Brooke turned and saw Haley and Lucas standing behind them, she looked at Peyton who hadn't turned around yet. "Wow Haley – did your naughty teacher outfit come with a whip?" She joked playfully. She looked at Peyton again, who still hadn't turned around. She looked over at Lucas who was standing there like a mindless sheep. She rolled her eyes and listened as a new song started to play. "Oh I love this song…Mouth, Haley come dance!" She stood up and began to walk over to the dance floor, followed by Mouth. She stopped and turned around, seeing Haley about to sit down on the couch. "Tutor girl….dance!"

Haley looked over at Brooke, "but I don't feel like…oh" She realised that Brooke was trying to give Peyton and Lucas a moment of alone time. Nodding, Haley stood up and looked at Lucas and tapped his shoulder before walking over to Brooke and Mouth, leaving the two of them alone.

Lucas sat down beside Peyton and looked her up and down, she looked amazing, truly. "Wow – you look, wow" He said sounding speechless. He sighed and rested his hand on her shoulder and smiled gently, "I'm sorry I was late…"

Peyton turned and looked at him, "I'm not mad…"

Lucas smirked, "Really because you look a little mad."

Peyton shook her head, "I'm not mad-" She paused and sighed gently, "Okay maybe I'm a little mad not about you standing me up, even though technically I should be a little mad at that but I'm not….I'm mad that you didn't call."

Lucas sighed, "I'm sorry….I kind of got caught up and I did try and call but my cell was dead and by the time I stopped by your house, you had already left." He raised his hand to the side of her face and smiled gently, tucking her blonde hair behind her ear. "Believe me, Peyt…I'm sorry."

Peyton sighed and felt as though tears were about to form in her eyes, she smirked and scoffed, "I guess it's just hormones…" She tilted her head looking at Lucas, he looked different. She couldn't place her finger on it exactly, but he just looked …. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." He said quickly. Did he not look fine? He had looked in the mirror of his rear view mirror of his car before coming into the club, he looked fine, he looked normal, there was no evidence of his little heart burn problem earlier. "Why?" He asked curiously

"I don't know, you just look a little different. I don't how to explain it." She shrugged. She watched as Lucas leant back into the couch, she smiled and rested back against it, resting her head on his shoulder. She stroked his hand and smiled, he may not have called but he did have a good reason. It was unlike her to act so – well so girlfriend like, it definitely had to be the pregnancy hormones. She watched as Lucas lifted his hand and rested it on top of her stomach, she smiled looking down at his hand. She looked up at Lucas, into his baby blue eyes and smiled. "Hi…"

"Hi…" He added back, all thoughts and worries about earlier slowly leaving him. He looked down at her stomach where his hand was resting and then back up into her eyes. Leaning in, he planted a long passionate kiss upon her lips, his hand still resting on her stomach.

Rachel had just come back from the bathroom and had stopped a few feet away from Peyton and Lucas, she watched the two of them carefully. Loving couple it would seem – but why was Lucas stroking the girl's belly, there only had to be one reason. Connect the dots – it wasn't hard and despite popular opinion around school she wasn't just the run of the mill brainless cheerleader, in fact she was quite the opposite. She had one of the highest GP's in the class and she had common sense…What else would explain Peyton's recent absences, her mood swings that everyone had taken note of, quitting the cheerleading squad close to regionals…interesting, she thought.

--

Nathan walked into the club, it had just turned nine thirty. He stopped in the doorway, looking over at the band playing on stage. Was that the Fray? It was, he was impressed. Peyton had managed to get the Fray to play in Tree Hill, the girl certainly had her talents. He looked down at his hair hands, feet and body and shook his head. Most of the people in the club had dressed up as something hip - he had come in full ape gear which probably wasn't a wise idea as he was already feeling slightly hot inside of it. He had come for one reason only; to tell someone how he felt.

**(A/N: Okay so its been a while since my last update, due to it being the holiday and I've had essays to be writing. Anyways, I hope this kinda made up for it - slightly longer than my other chapters, probably not as well written but ah well. Anyways, as always wanna know; Naley or Brathan?)**


	15. Wheel In The Sky

Peyton felt like life was finally allowing her to be happy. She had never really experienced this feeling before; it was a nice feeling. She turned and looked up at Lucas who was concentrating on the stage where The Fray were playing and she smiled. Somehow after the couple of years they have had, they were finally together and it was picture perfect. "I'm gonna get a drink." She sighed and pulled her body away from his slightly and pressed her hands against the sofa to stand up but instead was brought back down to her original sitting position by Lucas's arm, which were wrapped around her waist.

Lucas leaned in closer to Peyton's face and spoke gently into her ear, "I'll get it for you." He leaned forward and kissed the side of her cheek. Lucas stood up and headed out of the lounge area and made his way round the outside of the dance floor and to the bar.

Nathan nods to Lucas as he walks past. He then looks around the club that's engrossed with teenage bodies dressed in Halloween costumes. He looks over to the lounge area, seeing Peyton sat on one of the sofas. He slowly makes his way over to her. "You know I was thinking…" He says in a muffled voice due to the mask he's wearing as he steps around the sofa and looks down at what appears to be a very comfortable slouching Peyton Sawyer. Taking off the fury gorilla head covering his own head, he smirks "We could totally do one of those true movies, I mean think about it. You're my ex-girlfriend who's pregnant with my until recently, estranged half brother."

Peyton laughs at the thought, "Oh my god…that's a goldmine storyline, right there." She pats the empty seat next to her, willing for him to sit down. She watches as he sits his fury costumed body down next to her. "Hmm, didn't think I would see you here tonight…not really a Nathan Scott scene."

Nathan turns and looks at her and tilts his head, not his scene? He used to be king of the party, she knew that because she was usually the one helping his drunken, stumbling ass out of the parties. "Are you forgetting the start of freshmen year, the beach…I believe I got nicknamed, King Nathan." He smirked.

Peyton scoffs, "Uh, first of all, Tim was the one who named you King Nathan and that little nickname didn't stick and secondly, the only reason he called you King Nathan was because he idolised you…" She raises her brow, "Or was in love with you, never really could tell." Peyton laughs.

Nathan rolls his eyes at the comment, it wasn't the first time someone had said to him that perhaps Tim's obsession with Nathan's life came from a place which was a little more than just friends and he was sure it was going to be the last. Looking down at Peyton's stomach, he raised a brow. "So when are you gonna get fat?" He looked up at her with a cocky grin.

Peyton scrunches her nose as she frowns, it may be funny to him but to her it was a serious issue. She wasn't showing much yet, she had a little bit of a belly but nothing to say, 'hey look at me and my pregnant belly.' "Ha!" She said in a sarcastic tone, "If I had a drink, this would be the point where I would throw it over you."

"Why?" Nathan asked, completely clueless.

"Because don't you think I'm already paranoid about getting fatter. I mean in a month, two months time I'm gonna have no clothes that fit me. I'm gonna have to get maternity wear…oh my god, I'm gonna have to get maternity wear." Peyton sighed, she hadn't really thought about any of those things. She looked at Nathan who had a sheepish grin planted on his face, she couldn't help but smile back. "It's not funny."

"It kinda is…never thought you were that girl?"

"What girl?" Peyton asked confused.

"The girl who worries about getting fat – but technically you're not really gonna get fat because you'll be pregnant." He smiled gently, wrapping his furry gorilla arm around her neck. "The two are completely different."

Peyton smiled up at him, feeling tears form in her eyes. "Aw, I'm sorry – hormones, emotions are flying all over the place." She sighed and looked over to the dance floor where Haley, Mouth and Brooke were dancing. "Think back to freshmen year, did you ever think we'd be here?"

Nathan turned and looked over at the dance floor and saw Haley and Brooke, the two girls who were currently occupying his heart, but which one was he going to walk off into the sunset with? Haley, the woman he married a year ago on the beach in Tree Hill, the woman who had quickly stolen his heart but had also quickly abandoned it. When he went into the marriage, he was sure that he was going to be the one who screwed it all up but he was wrong. He felt less angry as each day went by about her leaving him but he still felt betrayed that she had never asked him to go with her, something which he would have done. Or Brooke, the girl who until this summer had been a complete stranger, she was the one who made him laugh after everything he had been through, she was the one who had been there for him and been an ear to talk to and a shoulder to cry on. The truth was he was still torn, he was still in love with Haley but he was feeling something more and more for Brooke each day he spent with her.

"Nathan…."

Nathan turned and looked at Peyton and raised his brow, "Hmm?"

She smirked, "I'm gonna head home, I'm tired, my ever expanding boobs are aching and I think my so-called morning sickness is gonna kick in soon."

Nathan tilted his head and jokingly looked at Peyton's chest, "expanding boobs?"

Peyton tilted her head and scoffed, "Uh perv!" She leant forward and slapped the back of his head. Smirking, she stood up. "Have fun tonight…"She paused and added "King Nathan" jokingly. Standing up from the sofa she made her way out of the cornered off lounge area and over to the bar. Tapping Lucas on the shoulder, she smiled as he turned and looked at her. "Long queue for drinks, huh?"

Lucas nods, "I guess that what happens when you organise a killer party" He says as he moves his hand to Peyton's lower back and gently rubs it up and down. "So you still want that soda?"

Peyton shook her head, "I'm actually feeling kind of tired – maybe it was the walk here or something" She said referring back to earlier in the evening when she had waited for Lucas to pick her up but he never showed. So instead because it was a nice night out she had decided to walk, in heels…while pregnant, probably not one of her better ideas.

"You trying to make me feel guilty, so I'll take you home?" Lucas asked, with his brow raised

Peyton nodded, "Yeah that's pretty much it." She grinned at him, it was nice that he knew her so well. It was nice and unusual; she had never let anyone get this close to her before because she feared she would ultimately lose them but now that fear was slowly going away.

Lucas pulled Peyton's body closer to him and leaned down, looking into her emerald coloured eyes. "Let's go home."

Peyton felt his lips brush against her forehead as he raised his hand from her lower back to her shoulder. They jointly turned around and slowly started to make their way towards the exit. "Hold on." Peyton turned her head and looked back over to the dance floor. She looked over at Brooke, Haley and Mouth and watched as Brooke looked over in their direction. Peyton smiled gently at her and added a little wave to say goodbye Peyton turned and looked back at Lucas and smirked, "Ready to roll."

---

Peyton walked up to the front door of her house and looked up at the porch light she had left one., as she always did whenever she was going out at night or when her father would be coming home. A part of her just wanted to go inside and crawl in bed and just sleep but the other part didn't want to be alone. Over the past few weeks, she had spent most of her time at Lucas's being fused over by Karen and waited on by Lucas, the attention she gladly swept up. Not to mention being so close to Lucas only deepened their relationship, long talks about the past, the present and the future, cuddling up on his bed watching some 80's b-flick horror movie and kissing. Things she liked doing, especially the kissing there was no denying that but this past week urges to be a little more sexual with Lucas were creeping up on her, they hadn't had sex since well, since the little one who was safely tucked up and growing inside of her belly was conceived. Turning her head she looked back at Lucas who had walked her to the front door. She wasn't sure if it was the weird and wacky hormones effecting her or whether it was just pure teenage lust; but she leaned up slightly and kissed him long and passionately, almost roughly on the lips as her hands reached around his neck, pulling his body in closer to hers.

Lucas pulled back from the kiss, he was caught off guard. "Whoa…what was that for?"

Peyton raised her brow, "Do you really wanna ask a bunch of questions or do you just wanna go with it?" she asked with a sigh, sometimes it seemed as though Lucas was so oblivious to how she was feeling and other times it seemed as though they were totally in sync, almost like they were one. Peyton tilted her head slightly down but kept her eyes on him and she shrugged. "Well…"

Lucas was confused for a moment but then it just like a switch had been turned on in his head, "Oh – you wanna have sex?" He asked, still a little unsure.

Peyton nodded, "Yeah, pretty much." She paused and her eyes widened as he brow frowned, "Wait…"She said quietly, "You don't?"

Lucas sighed he knew that there was no good way to answer the question. He had already left it too late to say yes and if he did so now, she would think that he was only saying yes to make her happy. Of course he wanted to say yes, the two of them had spent so much time together over the past few weeks and he loved the make outs more than anyone, especially with Peyton. Every time they got a little too hot and heavy, it was usually Peyton who pulled back saying that time was up and he'd be lying if he said he wasn't disappointed. "Peyton – it's not that I don't want to…cause I do…" He paused, "I really do." He smirked, slightly embarrassed, "but I don't wanna ruin things, everything is so – perfect right now and I don't wanna screw things up, not again."

Peyton rolled her eyes, "Lucas I love you for saying that, I do and I love that you're so worried about screwing things up… but seriously, man; get a backbone. You've got me on loan for nine months, take advantage of my pregnant horny state." She joked shaking her body from left to right. She raised one eyebrow and smirked, "Am I seducing you yet?" She laughed. It had been so long since she had this much confidence with herself. Any self doubt and worries she had in the past, seemed to have disappeared into the night.

"Honestly?" Lucas smirked, "Not really…" He took a step closer to her, resting his hands on her hips as he looked down into her beautiful emerald coloured eyes, "But please…please keep trying." Any thoughts of his HCM were pushed to the back of his mind, he wasn't going to worry about that now – not when he was with her. Lifting his hands up from her hips, he gently cupped her face and warmly smiled before planting a soft kiss upon her lips. As Peyton pulled back from the short but sweet kiss, he smirked bending down grabbing a hold of one of her arms and then using his other arm, he placed it under her legs and picked her up as so often is seen on television, when a bride and groom first arrive home. "So am I sweeping you off your feet?" He joked.

Peyton nodded, "Yeah, I think so."

Lucas stepped inside of Peyton's house and kissed her as his foot reached back and knocked the front door shut.

---

Haley walks over to the lounge area that has been set up and sectioned off in the corner of the club. She sees Nathan sat down ahead, dressed in a gorilla's costume and smiles to herself. They hadn't really spoken much since she returned from her summer away but there were indications that he was still in love with her; the way he would look at her sometimes, the fight he had with Chris. She still had hope but at the same time knew that all couldn't be forgiven and forgotten easily. So she was biding her time. "Hey…" She walked over and sat on the sofa opposite him. "Didn't think I'd see you here tonight" She noted.

Nathan looked at Haley and nods, "Yeah, everyone keeps on saying that. Apparently I'm not the party person."

Haley scoffs at his remark, "Yeah, right!" She laughed, "Nathan, you're like the tribal leader when it comes to a party. Everyone looks to you to set the tone, the only reason I said I didn't expect to see you here tonight was because of the whole costume thing, you said never really interested in Halloween."

Nathan shrugged and look down at his costume, "Well maybe I hit the nail on the head with that one, my costume is hardly creative." He said looking over at her costume, and raised a brow; "So, um are you supposed to be a naughty teacher or something, cause if so you're missing the whip?" He asked jokingly.

Haley sighed and looked down at her costume, "That's what Brooke said." She looked back up and rolled her eyes, "I was just going for teacher I didn't really think about what kind of implications it would…certainly didn't think a white blazer and a skirt would automatically suggest naughty!" She smiled and looked to the dance floor and saw Brooke and Mouth making their way over to lounge area. "You guys were dancing up a storm!"

"Yeah, well that's what happens when you put the head cheerleader on the dance floor with Tony Manero over here." She said motioning to Mouth. Brooke looked down at Nathan who at the same moment looked up at her. Her thoughts moving from having fun with Mouth to her feelings about Nathan, feelings which were growing stronger the more time she spent with him. However the awkwardness of the situation was just all to much, everything was getting too much. She missed the days when she would just hook up with some random, faceless jock. "Um, I gotta go – I'm getting a ride home with Bevin." She looked at Haley and Mouth and smiled, "See you guys tomorrow."

"Bye Brooke." Mouth waved as Brooke walked away from them. He sat down on the sofa next to Haley and smirked, a smirked, a smirk that seemed like he had slept with a hanger in his mouth but he didn't care.

Haley turned and looked at Mouth and grinned, "Someone's happy!"

Mouth nodded, "I danced with Brooke Davis all night." He said as though he were trying to process the thought. "I mean other guys came up and asked her to dance and she said no." Mouth turned and looked at Haley, "She hung out with us the entire night. I mean she had better offers, but she didn't take them" He smiled, "That's what a great friend is like." Mouth stood up from the sofa and looked over to the dance floor. He felt as though Brooke's fondness for him gave him some confidence. He smirked, "It's time to hit the dance floor solo and pick up the ladies." He added jokingly. He grinned at Nathan and winked at Haley before heading back onto the dance floor.

Haley laughed, "I think Brooke's just created the Mouth-inator." Haley rolled her eyes, "No woman is safe with Mouth on the loose." Haley leant back in the chair and looked over to the bar where Karen was working. She looked busy, Haley smiled and stood up from the sofa. "I'm gonna give Karen a hand at the bar, she looks swamped." Haley looked down at Nathan and smiled gently at him, "See you later." Haley began to walk away from the lounge area.

Nathan stood up, it was now or never. "Haley…" He watched as Haley turned around and looked at him. "Uh, can we talk?"

Haley looked at Nathan, a little concerned by his tone and nodded. She walked back over to the sofa she was sitting on and took in a deep sigh, he sounded serious.

---

Brooke was waiting outside the club, her arms folded across her chest to keep herself warm. The beginning of the night had been warm, there wasn't any wind but now she could feel the brisk coldness against her face.

"Brooke…"

Brooke turned around and saw Nathan standing behind her dressed up in his gorilla outfit, she smirked. "Guess you're not freezing you're ass off in that costume." She said rubbing her arms. She looked back up to the entrance of Tric and smiled, looking back at him. "You and Haley seemed like you were getting on alright tonight." She paused, "Finally taking her off of the time out bench?"

Nathan took a couple of steps closer to her and sighed, "I need to tell you something."

Brooke looked up at him, he wasn't the cocky Nathan Scott right now, he was by the tone of his voice quite serious. Brooke nodded, "Sure…what's up?"


	16. Shut Your Eyes

Nathan walked into the school hallway dressed in a pair of blue denim jeans and a baby blue coloured t-shirt with his black backpack hanging from his left shoulder. He hadn't gotten much sleep last night because he was too busy replaying the whole evening back in his mind. He had never been keen on Halloween and usually avoided any kind of party that involved getting dressed up in a costume because he thought that it was pointless and people always looked stupid, well people being guys dressed up – he thought girls dressing up in costumes was sexy. However he had defied his usual ignorance of these lame ass parties and had decided to go, for one reason and one reason only...Nathan stopped in the hallway, seeing Haley ahead at her locker. He felt his stomach tighten and he was about to turn and walk away when he saw her turn and look at him. How were things going to be now? Were they gonna be any different? He took in a deep breath as he watched Haley walk towards him. Nathan placed his hands inside his jean pockets and awkwardly smiled at her, as a greeting. "Hey…"

Haley had thought about this moment over and over again in her head last night, what would they do when they saw each other next now that everything was out and in the open? Everything was out in the open, he knew how she felt about him, her coming back to be with him was the purest indication of her feelings but she had been unsure of his until last night. Haley smiled as she looked up at Nathan, "Hey…."

--

_Haley walked over to the lounge area inside of Tric, Nathan has asked if they could talk and had just nodded at him like a mindless idiot. In the pit of her stomach, she had a feeling as though something bad was about to happen, maybe it was Nathan's facial expression that made her feel like that, he looked so serious, a look she had never really seen before. She looked up and watched as Nathan sat beside her. They looked at one another, both sitting in silence. Haley sighed, "Okay, you know I can' handle the silence, I always need to fill it with babbling or sprouting some random knowledge" Haley joked, "but" She let out another sigh, "The feeling in the pit of my stomach is telling me that I should be bracing myself for the worst." Haley's smile fell and she could hear her heart beat in her ears, it felt like it was pounding at her ear drums. "So just give it to me straight…"_

_Nathan had listened and watched her talk on and was completely shocked that she called him up on everything. He had intended to do a little babbling of his own but Haley had beaten him to the punch and there they were, together but apart. "Haley…" Nathan paused, trying to think how to word what he wanted to say but instead he decided just to go for it, "I have to be honest with you, because I know you're waiting in the wings wanting a reconciliation and I don't want to leave you waiting in the wings because it would be unfair to you." _

_Haley nodded, "You don't love me anymore." She was holding back the tears, trying to survive. _

_Nathan sighed, "No, Haley's that not it. I do love you and I always will…but" He raised his hand to his face and wiped his mouth. "There's no easy way to say this, lately I've been having feelings for someone else and I needed you to know that." Nathan looked down at the floor and felt a heavy weight lifted from his shoulders, he had finally confessed to the woman he was still in love with that he was having feelings for someone else. _

_Haley looked off to the side and closed her eyes, she felt as though her whole world was falling apart. She knew that he would probably move on, but she had never really braced herself for that moment and the feelings it would bring. Truth be told, she had been a little naïve, thinking that the two of them would get back together. "So I guess it's the end of the road for us, huh" She was still holding back the tears as she turned and looked at Nathan and smiled, the only was she knew how to stop herself from crying was to smile. _

_Nathan was welling up, his eyes were watering. He turned and looked at the beautiful girl he had once called his wife and shrugged, "Honestly, I don't think our road ends here." He tried to smile encouragingly, "Maybe one day we'll be back where we were…but I need to…"_

_Haley nodded understanding, "You need to see what could be." He had given her a little hope for their future together, he was after all still in love with her and he said that maybe one day. Maybe was the key word, maybe was hopeful._

_--_

Haley looked up at Nathan and smiled, letting out some trapped air. "This is awkward, huh." She said honestly. Haley was never shy about offering up her opinion, even if it made people feel awkward. She liked to tell the truth and she liked being told the truth, no matter how painful it might be, she always liked to know. "Listen, Nathan. We can still be friends, right? I mean it's like you said last night, just because we're not together now it doesn't mean that at some point in the future, may it be near or distant that we won't get back what we had." She smiled gently, "But we need to go our own paths and see where they go first."

Nathan nodded, Haley was taking it a lot better than he thought she would. Initially he thought that things between them would be more awkward, that they wouldn't be able to look at one another let alone talk to one another. "So friends."

Haley nodded, "Friends." She tilted her head slightly and raised one of her brows, "Should we shake on it or something?"

Nathan laughed, "Uh, yeah. We can shake on it." Nathan extended his hand out to Haley.

Haley looked down at his and scoffed, "I'm not shaking that hand, I don't know where it's been" She joked, "see now we're friends I can be all Haley Sc-" she paused before she finished the word, it was a mistake that she made so often, calling herself Haley Scott because of course now she was no longer a Scott. "Haley James to you, the girl with the extraordinary wit."

Nathan shook his head laughing, "Damn, I shouldn't have made the friend jester." He joked.

Haley shrugged, coolly. "Yeah well you did, so expect the same treatment as all my other bros, yo!" She said holding up index and little finger, which was the 'rock on' sign but she didn't really know any better.

Nathan looked down at her raised a brow, "and here it starts." He started to walk down the hallway and was followed by Haley, who was making funny comments and doing different stereotypical, so called cool signs which she just wasn't passing off, which was the exact thing that made it funny.

-----

Lucas and Peyton walked into the school hallway arm in arm. Lucas's arm was hanging off of Peyton's shoulder keeping her body close to his while Peyton's arm was wrapped tightly around his waist, holding onto him. They kept their attention on one another only really looking where to go every once in a while. Peyton smiled up at Lucas, last night had been a good night. No scratch that, last night was fantastic. It had to be her hormones making her so, well so horny. It was a nice contrast to the feeling over morning sickness, but today was the start of her 10th week or at least that was her calculation – so according to research she had been doing on the net, looking up facts about pregnancy and what to expect, she was relieved that in a few weeks her first trimester would be out of the way and that would include the crappyness that is morning sickness.

Lucas looked at her and smirked, "You know, if you don't stop smiling like that I'm going to become accustom to it and then you're just gonna have to smile every day." Lucas said referring to Peyton's mood swings, where she would one minute be happy and content and the next she would be distant. She hadn't been like that since they started dating again, again – that was a misnomer. They had never actually really dated.

Peyton looked up at him and smirked, "So you like happy go lucky me more than moody broody me?" She asked jokingly.

Brooke walked up to Lucas and Peyton speedily and looked at Lucas. "Move it or lose it, broody. I need to talk to Peyton." Before either Lucas or Peyton had a chance to respond Brooke took a hold of Peyton's arm and dragged her inside the girl's bathroom across the hallway. She walked into further into the girl's bathroom and began to pace around, "Okay, I'm kind of in a bind." She said turning back to look at Peyton, who was looking at her confused. "Something happened last night and I really don't know what to do, so I'm bringing in you as my yoda, as my guru, to guide me into the light."

Peyton was definitely confused, Brooke had just dragged her into the bathroom without even saying something like good morning and had started rambling, and Brooke never rambled. Peyton took a couple of steps closer to Brooke and rested her hands on her shoulders, "Calm down." She said with a smirk, being the calm one for usual. "Walk me through it."

Brooke looked up at Peyton and bit her bottom lip.

--

_Brooke was waiting outside for Bevin, she had left Tric about five minutes earlier mostly because of the awkwardness that she felt, the awkwardness of being in a room with Haley and Nathan. She had told herself before that after what had happened between Lucas and Peyton, after everything she had been through, the broken heart that she would never be involved in a love triangle again, she would never do that to someone and would never allow it do be done to her again._

"_Brooke." _

_Brooke turned around and saw Nathan walking towards her dressed in his gorilla outfit, sans the head. She smirked at him, "Guess you're not freezing you're ass off in that costume." She said rubbing her arms. She looked back up to the entrance of Tric and smiled, looking back at him. "You and Haley seemed like you were getting on alright tonight." She paused, "Finally taking her off of the time out bench?"_

_Nathan took a couple of steps closer to her and sighed, "I need to tell you something."_

_Brooke looked up at him, he wasn't the cocky Nathan Scott right now, he was by the tone of his voice quite serious. Brooke nodded, "Sure…what's up?" Brooke waited for Nathan to reply but he didn't say anything, she noted that he was just staring at her. She looked from left to right, frowning slightly. "What…do I have something on my face?" She asked raising her hands to her face, checking for anything that might have been out of place. _

_Nathan just shook his head. Telling Haley that he had feelings for someone else was turning out to be a lot easier than telling that someone else. He closed his eyes, trying to find the words. He didn't want to blurt them out, he needed to get them right. The funny thing was he had actually practised this speech in his head a number of times and all of those speeches seemed to have slipped right out of his mind. "Um…"_

_Brooke let out a sigh, "Spit it out, Scott." She said, straight to the point. She hated it when Nathan turned into the wordless Scott brother, that was Lucas's job – to be the quiet one. _

_Nathan nodded, "I just Haley that I was still in love with her." _

_Brooke found herself smiling, "That's great, Nate." She found herself saying. Her smile was about as a fake as it could be and the words just seemed to spill out of her mouth, she didn't want to appear to be unhappy for the two of them as she was friends with Haley and as of this summer had stricken up a really good friendship with Nathan. _

"_I wasn't finished." He said, sighing. "I told her I was still in love with her…" He paused, this really wasn't going as planned. He kept saying that he was in love with Haley, probably not the best idea when you're trying to tell the girl that you're having feelings for her. "Damn it," He said in frustration. "That's not what I'm trying to say…" Nathan took a couple of steps closer to Brooke, looking down into her big beautiful brown eyes he smiled. "I like you, Brooke." _

_Brooke was getting confused by his speeches so she just found herself nodding along, "I like you too, Nathan." She added a small smile to the end of the sentence. _

_Nathan sighed, "No, I mean…" He paused, how the hell was he going to get across that he liked Brooke, liked as in more than liked. He could tell her that he was having feelings for her but without a doubt she would just question him no end, especially since he had just confessed that he was still in Haley, confessed it twice to be exact. He sighed and leaned down, his hands reaching behind Brooke's back bringing her body closer to his as his lips met hers, he kissed her. The kiss seemed to go on forever but in reality it was just a couple of seconds before the two pulled back. He looked down at her and sighed out of relief that he had taken action. "I like you, Brooke." He said in a stronger tone. _

_Brooke stood there, just staring up at Nathan. She was literally speechless. _

_--_

"Oh my god," Peyton said after hearing the story. She was trying to process everything through her mind, Brooke and Nathan? She knew that Brooke had developed a crush on Nathan since the summer because Brooke had pretty much told her that but she had no idea that Nathan felt the same way towards Brooke. She had just kind of figured that Nathan and Haley would get back together but obviously that was out of the question for now. "What happened next?" Peyton asked, her body was resting again the girl's bathroom sink.

Brooke shrugged, "Bevin pulled up in her car and I took off."

Peyton opened her mouth shocked, "You left him hanging?"

Brooke nodded, she was about as shocked as Peyton looked. After all for the past couple of months she had found herself attracted to Nathan more and more, but when push came to shove she ran away from the situation. She could have stayed there and talked it out with him, she could have even stayed there and made out with him but instead she ran. "So Yoda-Peyton, give me some freakin' words of wisdom."

Peyton sighed and rubbed her forehead, "Honestly, Brooke. I don't think I can." On the one hand she wanted to tell Brooke just to go for it because Brooke deserved to be happy but on the other hand she was reluctant because of Haley, and everything that being with Nathan would bring to the table. "Just be careful!"

Brooke looked at Peyton and raised her brow, "Be careful? That's it? That's all you have to say?" Brooke sighed out of frustration and walked out of the bathroom, she had wanted Peyton to tell her what to do, not to say something like be careful.

Peyton turned around and faced the mirror on the wall. She had just been given some extremely huge news, one that could effect the balance of everything. Once upon a time she had been in Brooke's shoes and Brooke had been in Haley's, well kind of. Brooke and Lucas were never married but they were dating…but then again, Nathan and Haley were no longer married and they weren't dating. Peyton was trying to think of something which would help everyone concerned, but was coming to blank. Leaning forward she looked at herself in the mirror and then down to her breasts, which were bigger than they were originally.

Rachel had entered the girl's bathroom about thirty seconds earlier and was watching Peyton. "That's one of the signs." Rachel said, walking further into the bathroom. She pulled up next to Peyton and stared in the mirror, pulling out her lip gloss.

Peyton turned and looked at Rachel confused, "One of the signs?" Peyton asked.

Rachel turned and looked at Peyton and then looked down at her chest earlier, "Bigger boobs…" Rachel sighed as Peyton still looked dumbfounded. "Please, don't play dumb. You've missed a lot of school, you're not taking part in gym, you're eating more than your tiny ass frame could ever handle and you're looking a little more chesty than the start of term. Soon the belly is gonna get bigger and as it does your ankles are gonna swell" Rachel turned back and looked at mirror, putting on her lip gloss. She puckered her lips together and raised a brow, "Is Lucas the father?"

"I'm not-"

Rachel interrupted her, "Pregnant…sure you're not." She said sarcastically. Reaching inside of her black leather jacket, she pulled out a small white contact card and handed it to Peyton. "Here."

Peyton took the card and raised it in the air, "What's this?"

"It's the address of a clothes store in Newberry." Rachel paused, "It deals with plus sizes and maternity wear and it's not old granny knit wear, it's funky and young clothes aimed at the plus sized and pregnant teen. You should check it out." Rachel licked her lips and looked back in the mirror. "Perfect." She turned around and headed out of the girls bathroom.

Peyton looked down at the card and read it over, it was the second time in the matter of ten minutes that she had been shocked. The first time was Brooke telling her about the kiss and now it was Rachel being nice and offering her a card to a plus sized shop that was young and what was it Rachel said, funky? Peyton put the card inside her jean pocket and headed out of the bathroom.

A bathroom stall opened and closed.

------

Nathan walked out of the guys changing room. He had gone all day without seeing Brooke, which was both a disappointment and a relief. He was still reliving the moment from last night in his head, what did he expect Brooke to do, fall lovingly into his arms? No, of course not but he did expect a reaction and in a way, he supposed he got one. Jumping into a car and speeding off was pretty much a definitive way of saying that you're not interested in someone. Nathan walked down the hallway towards the gymnasium, he was readying for practise and he was ready to see Brooke or at least that's what he was telling himself. At that moment he found himself bumping into someone coming out of the girls changing room. "Sorry…" He watched as the dark haired girl turned around and looked at him, it was Brooke. Okay, so maybe he wasn't ready to be face to face with his rejection. He stepped past Brooke and continued to walk towards the gymnasium.

Brooke watched after Nathan and frowned, "Oh so that's how it's going to be?" She asked rather angrily while walking after him. "You don't even acknowledge my presence?" She watched as Nathan turned back and looked at her, she sighed. Brooke had made it her mission to avoid Nathan all day because she still wasn't sure what she was going to say to him, but sorry about running off was definitely on the to do list…but to watch him just dismiss her like that really steamed her up, she had done it to him all day, to avoid him but to see him do it to her was unacceptable, she had double standards.

"What do you want me to say Brooke?" He looked around and took a step closer to her, leaning down slightly so that he was at her level. "I tell you I like you…" He paused, "I kissed you…and you run off, leaving me high and dry." He said accusingly. He was a little wound up by her actions last night and also wound up by her obviously ignoring him today, they were supposed to have 3rd period chemistry together but she was a no show. "All you had to do was tell me that you didn't feel the same way and that was it."

Brooke frowned, "That's wasn't it, you jack ass." Brooke leaned in closer to Nathan trying to keep her voice down. "I jumped into Bevin's car not because I don't like you Nathan, it's because I do, alright?" She sighed. "I like you, are you happy now?"

Nathan couldn't help but grin at her outburst towards him. It was kind of refreshing to see Brooke all wound up like that and honestly, it was kind of a turn on. "Oh…" He smirked, "You like me." He joked.

Brooke tilted her head and spoke quietly, "Yes."

Nathan smirked, "You like me!" He said again, cockily.

Brooke rolled her eyes, "How would you like my pompom shoved up your ass?" She smirked and waved her pompoms at him before stepping past him and inside of the gymnasium. Okay, so now it was out there. They both liked each other, they had discussed what they were going to do about those feelings but the feelings were out there and that was the important thing. Brooke walked across the gymnasium floor and looked over at all of the basketball players, warming up and running drills. She headed over to the cheerleading section, and paused looking at Haley. Damn, she caught her eye and Haley was walking over towards her. "Hey tutor girl."

"Everyone knows."

Brooke looked at Haley and raised her brow, "Uh" She felt as though a frog were in her throat right now, "What do you mean?"

Haley leaned in closer to Brooke and whispered, "People are talking about Peyton being pregnant."

Brooke looked around and saw the girl's in the squad gossiping. She then looked over to Lucas who had been joined by Nathan, the rest team though were talking to one another. "Oh-" She looked back at Haley and shrugged slightly, "Does Peyton know that everyone knows?"

Rachel walked up to Haley and Brooke and smirked, "I'm thinking… yeah." She said looking over to the gymnasium door where Peyton had just walked in. Rachel turned and looked at Brooke, "and just think you could have been the one knocked up with a cute Scott baby." Rachel turned and looked at Haley, "Or you could have." She smiled and walked away from the two of them, pleased that she was stirring.

Brooke and Haley slowly made their way across the gymnasium over to Peyton. They both were cautious in how they approached her. "Hey P.Sawyer…what brings you to practise?" Brooke asked.

"Oh you know." Peyton sat down in the bleachers with a folder full of the work that she was going to have to do in order to keep up with the rest of the year if she wanted to graduate with her class. "Just came to watch my father of my unborn child play some basketball." She said loudly so that everyone could hear. She sarcastically smiled over to the cheerleaders who had obviously been talking about her.

Brooke sighed, "You okay?"

Peyton looked at Brooke putting the work down on the bleachers. "No, I'm not okay." Peyton sat back slightly further, "Instead of telling everyone myself in my own time, some stupid punk ass freshman spread the news, she'll be getting a mouthful when I find her." She sighed, "On top of that, I've got all of this work to do if I want to graduate you all, I'm putting on weight and my boobs are getting bigger which by the way means that I no longer have any bras that fit, so to answer your question, I'm not okay." Peyton paused and cried fakely with a small smile gracing her lips.

Brooke laughed and sat down next to Peyton, while Haley sat the other side of Peyton. Brooke rested her hand on Peyton's and smiled, "You're smiling when you're mad…I like pregnant Peyton."

Haley rested her head against Peyton's shoulder and smirked, "Me too."

Peyton rolled her eyes and laughed. She knew that she should have been mad at the little freshman spreading her good news, and that she should have been mad at Rachel for sticking her nose in, and even mad at Brooke for telling her the secret but she wasn't mad. In fact she was finding it all kind of funny, how everything was turning out. It was strange because usually she would be the first one to snap, make some sarcastic jester at Rachel for offering her the plus sized card, she would have found the freshman and given her a good ol' piece of angry Peyton Sawyer but she wasn't that girl anymore. She was different it was all because of Lucas. She smiled and looked out onto the basketball court watching Lucas and the rest of the team run drills. Her smile faded slowly as she followed Lucas, who looked a little off colour…screw off colour, he looked sheet white and that's when it happened. She watched as Lucas fell to the floor on the gymnasium, as she watched him fall she felt her heart stop.


	17. I Don't Wanna Lose You

Peyton stood up from the chair and began to pace around the waiting area in the hospital. It was the fifth time in the space of two minutes that she had gotten up from her chair and paced the room. Her attention seemed to be aimed at the floor but really her mind was elsewhere; in the past to be exact. No one ever really likes hospitals, but she had a good reason not to. It was like déjà vu, except instead of being in a car crash; Lucas had collapsed all on his own, right in front of her in the gymnasium. It felt worse than last time, to actually see it…was, well…it wasn't an image she was going to be forgetting anytime soon.

Brooke looked over at Nathan; he was leaning against the hospital wall and looking good while doing it. Okay, probably not the best thing to be thinking about right now, Brooke told herself. She was there for Peyton and Lucas, whatever was going on between her and Nathan was just going to have to wait. Brooke looked up at Peyton, "Peyton you're making me wanna pee, pacing around like that."

Peyton looked over to Brooke and raised her brow, "What?" She only heard a mumble come from Brooke's mouth before. "I'm just – what do you think is taking them so long?" Peyton walked over and sat back down in the seat which her butt had jumping out of for the past forty five minutes. Peyton turned and looked at Brooke who was sat on her right and then she turned and looked at Haley who was sat on her left.

Haley smiled and extended her arm, placing her hand on the back of Peyton. She smiled gently, "They're probably just running tests, just to make sure he doesn't have concussion or something." Haley said optimistic.

"But he just fainted…" Peyton sighed, "I mean he fell…and then like ten seconds later he opened his eyes…he only fainted!" She said trying to reassure herself.

"You heard Whitey, everyone who falls ill on the basketball court have to come to the hospital for a check up." Brooke added, trying to ease Peyton's obvious worries. "It's like standard procedure, so I'm sure there's nothing to worry about." Brooke smiled, reaching over taking a hold of Peyton's hand. "Okay"

Peyton nodded and sighed, "I guess I'm just over anxious." With good reason, she thought to herself. This was the third time in five years she had been to the hospital. The first was to watch as her mother died, a fun experience she thought sarcastically to herself. The second time was when she came to visit Lucas after his car crash, when she told him that she would wait forever for him if she had to…for some reason those words were swimming around in her mind. Peyton looked over to Lucas's door and watched as Karen and the doctor left the room, she sat up interested. Karen looked like she had been crying – well she looked sad and somewhat mad. Standing up, Peyton walked over to the two of them. "Is everything…" She couldn't get out the last few words.

Karen nodded she was still reeling from Lucas's confession. "Um," She looked at the doctor, "Thank you…" She watched as the doctor walked off down the hallway. She forced a smile as she looked around the waiting room. It was nice that all of Lucas's friends had shown up, she turned and looked back at Peyton and leaned up touching the side of her cheek. "Everything is" She paused, "You can go in…I'm just going outside for some fresh air." She needed some fresh air; to think and to calm down as she was feeling a little too infuriated to go back into his room right now. Karen let out a deep sigh and walked off down the hallway to the hospital entrance.

Peyton turned around and watched as Karen walked away, she turned back and looked at the hospital door with her brow raised curiously. Why was Karen mad? What had happened? These were probably not the right questions to be thinking but they were there and present in her thoughts. She knocked on the door gently and pushed it open, seeing Lucas sat up in the bed in one of those white hospital dressing gowns. She smiled gently at him, "Hey…mind if we come in?"

Lucas had wanted to talk to Peyton by herself before telling the others but maybe it was best he did it all together, maybe that way it would lessen the fallout that they might have. "Yeah…" He watched as Peyton walked into the hospital room, followed by Haley, Brooke and Nathan. He smirked, "Wow, didn't know I was popular." He joked.

Peyton walked over and sat on the seat beside Lucas's bed. She tilted her head looking at him, almost examining him. She lifted her hand to the bed and rested it on his, feeling his warm hand underneath her. She turned back and looked at Haley, Brooke and Nathan who were all stood round the bottom of his bed. "He's not contagious." She said jokingly at the three of them standing back.

Haley laughed, "Well…" She said jokingly. "We just…thought you two might want some privacy."

Lucas nodded, "Actually um…I guess while you're all here, I should." He paused how was he going to tell them? How were the going to react? When he told his mother first she cried at the thought of him being 'ill' but then she got mad at the fact that he had lied to her about being okay back in spring and then she got even more mad when he told her that he had been taking medication and that Dan had been the one giving it to him. "I fainted today."

"Yeah we know, Broody. We all were there to witness you're little drama felt scene." Brooke said interrupting him, trying to add a little humor to the room which was quiet and almost dead like.

Lucas laughed, "Yeah…I guess you were a little mad at me taking the attention off of you." He said jokingly back to Brooke.

Brooke raised her hand at Lucas and motioned a claw. "Meow." She said cat like, "Well I guess there's a good thing coming out of this little hospital visit, Lucas finally has a sense of humor." Brooke looked down at Peyton and smiled, "See P. Sawyer, he's not sick…"

Lucas looked down at Peyton and his smile faded. "Actually…" He didn't know else to say it so he decided to be blunt. "I am…I have HCM." He said looking down at his body guiltily. He knew that he should have told her sooner, told everyone sooner but he honestly thought it wasn't affecting him that much. He had been okay over the summer holiday but over the past couple of weeks, running laps around the basketball court in school it made him felt a little more breathless than usual.

Peyton looked at Lucas, what did he mean he was sick? He looked fine, better than he did anyways. "What's HCM?" She asked.

"It stands for Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy…" Nathan said answering the question. He shook his head in disbelief. For months Lucas had lied to everyone, he had lied to Karen, to Peyton, to Haley…to everyone. Two years ago if he had found out that Lucas was ill he would have just shrugged but so much had changed since then. They hadn't only become friends but they had connected as brothers, so it hurt him to find out that he had lied to him, face to face. "It's a disease which affects the heart, it can be genetic. I got checked out last spring and apparently so did Lucas; I guess that was just a lie though…huh!" Nathan looked over at Haley who looked about as mad as he felt inside. He turned around and walked out of the hospital room.

Brooke smiled awkwardly, "I'll be …yeah" She turned and walked out of the hospital room.

----

Brooke walked up behind Nathan and tagged on his arm to slow him down, "Hey…"

Nathan stopped and turned around to looked down at Brooke and snapped slightly, "What?"

Brooke raised her brow, "Where are you going?"

"Home." He said

Brooke frowned, "Right…so you're brother tells you that he's ill and you turn on the jerk button and ride off home to play a little x-box?"

Nathan sighed, "I don't need this right now, Brooke. I don't need to feel like the guilty one, when he's the one who should be feeling guilty." He said referring to Lucas. "He's been lying to everyone for months about being okay." He frowned, "Why are you so interested anyways? I thought you into him anymore!" He asked and right then regretted it. The comment had just slipped out of his mouth, he hadn't even been thinking about Brooke and Lucas and how they were once a couple. Maybe it was just a reflex, at seeing the girl he was falling for defending another guy.

Brooke couldn't believe what she was hearing. Not only was Nathan defending the way he just treated Lucas back in the hospital room but he was questioning her about her feelings for Lucas. "Listen up, ass" She said angrily, "because I'm only going to tell you this once. I'm not into Lucas. Unlike you though, I have something called compassion for others." She sighed, "Sure he lied to you…boo fricken hoo, Mary!" Brooke pointed back at the hospital room. "He lied to other people as well, people who are in love with him" She said referring to Peyton, "to people that have been by his side for the past seventeen years being his best friend." She said referring to Haley. "I don't think now is the time for you to get on your high horse and start pointing fingers. It's the time where we're supposed to pull together, that's what friends do." Brooke shook her head, "You know what – go home and sulk like a baby and once you've grown up, give Lucas a call and tell him you're sorry…then call Haley and tell her if she needs to talk to anyone you'll be there for her…Just whatever you do, don't call me to apologize about that lame ass remark because I won't answer!" Brooke said scowled at him. She turned around and headed back to the hospital room.

-----

Haley had walked over to Lucas's bed and sat down on it, beside him. He had been telling her and Peyton that he was fine but it didn't really matter because she was still worried and a little angry. She was his best friend, they had been ever since she could remember so if he would have told anyone …he should have told her. Okay, well maybe he should have told Peyton because they were all in love and what not, but she had known him and loved him longer so she felt like she was owed the truth.. "I don't know what to say." She looked over at Lucas and frowned, "What does it mean? Are you going to be okay?"

Lucas nodded, "Yeah…I'm going to be fine. I've just gotta start taking medication." He smiled trying to ease the situation. "Really, Hales…I'm fine. If I wasn't they wouldn't be discharging me in a couple of hours would they?" He smiled and rubbed the back of Haley's back. He turned and looked down at Peyton, she hadn't said anything since she asked what HCM, she had even looked at him. Her hand had never left his though, which gave him some comfort. "Hey…" He said smiling, moving his hand from Haley's back to Peyton's chin, lifting her head so that she could look at him. "You should go home, I know you hate all of this." He said looking around the hospital room, "I'll call by yours later after my mom's yelled at me enough."

Brooke walked back into the hospital room and tapped on the door gently, "Sorry…just had to kick a little Scott ass." She said honestly. She had paced the waiting room a couple of times before walking through the hospital room door, trying to calm herself down. For some reason, Nathan's comment about her liking Lucas really wound her up and it wasn't because deep down she was still secretly harboring feelings for Lucas…no, it was because she had told Nathan that she liked him and then he had the nerve to question her, after a confession. "So everything okay in here?" She asked, curiously.

"Can you give me a ride home?" Peyton asked. Brooke had driven her here so really unless Peyton wanted to catch a ride home with Karen and Lucas later then she would be stranded. On Brooke's nod, Peyton stood up and looked back down at Lucas, "Bye" as she leaned down and gently kissed Lucas on the forehead.

"You coming tutor girl?" Brooke asked looking over at Haley

Haley looked down at Lucas and shook her head, "I think I'm gonna stay here for a while."

Brooke nodded and watched as Peyton walked up to her side, she leaned in closer and whispered. "You sure you don't wanna stay?"

Peyton closed her eyes and shook her head. It was a good thing that Lucas had told her to leave when he did because she was starting to feel sick and it wasn't from morning sickness but rather from the thought of being back in the hospital. "I need to get out of here." She said whispering to Brooke.

Brooke nodded and opened the door, walking out of the hospital room with Peyton.

Lucas turned and looked at Haley and smiled at her, "You really sure you wanna stay for the ass kicking my mom will probably be giving me in the car?" He asked

Haley nodded, "Yeah, if anything I can help to stop the forthcoming ass kicking…or I could add just fuel to fire, so you'd better start buttering me up Eugene!" She said jokingly. She shifted her body further down on the bed and rested her head against Lucas's chest as she had done last time she was in the hospital visiting Lucas.

Lucas smiled and leant back against the pillow looking over to the door. It had been a while since he and Haley had just hung out, it was a shame that him fainting and being brought into hospital was the thing that instigated the hanging out though. He sighed, "You think Peyton was a little too quiet?" He asked curiously. Haley and Peyton were close, so he wanted a second opinion. "I mean I know that she hates hospitals for obvious reasons but she was a little…I don't know."

Haley sighed and looked up at Lucas, "I'm sure that's all it was." She smiled gently, knowing that she hadn't convinced her blonde haired best friend. Haley knew Peyton so she figured that the next time Lucas went to see her that there would be argument waiting for him…but then again, Peyton had become a little less Peyton-like, now that she was pregnant she wasn't as prone to arguments.

------

Brooke had settled herself in for the night on her sofa watching The Notebook. She had offered to stay with Peyton for the night but Peyton said that she just wanted to be alone. Brooke would have usually stayed when Peyton brought up the alone word but she knew that Lucas was going to drop round later so she had thought twice about insisting on staying. She didn't want to be the third wheel to that. Brooke paused the DVD hearing a knock at the door and smiled to herself. Her mom was out of town which meant that she could order anything she wanted without getting a smart ass comment like, 'oh Hunnie do you really think you need to eat that' or her favorite yet, 'sweetheart, no, it will make your ass look huge.' So she had treated herself to a pizza and ice cream, for her girly night in. Walking over to the door, she was dressed down in her blue pj bottoms and a white vest, with her hair just swept back in an untidy pony tail. She opened the door and saw Nathan standing on her porch, he wasn't pizza. She frowned at him, their little argument still at the fore front of her mind. "Didn't I tell you not to call me?"

Nathan nodded, "I'm not calling…I knocked and you did answer" He joked smiling at her. He had gone home and played on his x-box just like Brooke had predicted and thought about everything that went down. He knew that he was being an ass to Lucas, to everyone but it didn't really matter at the time because he was upset.

Brooke folded her arms across her chest, "Only because I thought you were the delivery boy. Had I known it was you, I would have thrown a bucket of ice cold water out of the bathroom window." She said smirking at him.

Nathan sighed, "Brooke…" He shook his head and turned around looking out to the street. He walked over to the railings on her porch and lent down against them. "I was mad at Lucas." He said looking over his shoulder, "and I couldn't get past it." He turned and looked back out to the street as Brooke walked up beside him. "Two years ago if someone had told me Lucas was ill, I would have probably laughed or made some lame ass joke…but now," He paused… "now he's my brother" His mother and father had gone slightly off of the rails in the past two years, "he's the only family of mine that makes sense."

Brooke looked at Nathan and rested her hand on his shoulder, comfortingly. She loved that Nathan could be just so honest and open with her. He was the only guy ever to be like that with her, sure Lucas had tried to be but she knew from the beginning that the only person Lucas would ever really open up to in their relationship was Peyton. She smiled up at him.

Nathan looked down at Brooke's hand and then into her eyes and paused. They were having that moment; the moment before the second kiss. First kisses were always an unsure thing, no one ever could really tell if the other person was going to kiss them back. A first kiss could be a mistake but the second kiss was a confirmation of how people felt for one another, a second kiss could never be a mistake. He leaned in closer, ready to kiss her.

"Hey pepperoni pizza?" The delivery guy asked.

Brooke turned and looked at the delivery guy and rolled her eyes, great time dumbass she thought to herself. Turning back she looked at Nathan and smiled, "You wanna stay for some pizza?"

Nathan let out a sigh, "As much as I want to…I can't." He said honestly, because he did want to stay more than he could tell her. "I'm going over to Haley's to see if she needs to talk and then I'm going over to Lucas's to apologize." Nathan shook his head and walked past Brooke and off of the porch. He looked at the delivery guy and gave him a slight evil look and shook his head as he walked away from her house.

Brooke watched as Nathan walked away. She tapped her feet against the porch in frustration and sighed dramatically as she walked over to the delivery guy, taking the pizza box out of his hand and swapped it with cash.

The delivery guy looked down at the money, "A four dollar tip? I was like eighteen minutes…that's like twelve minutes before deadline!"

Brooke frowned at him, "Well maybe you would have gotten a bigger tip if you didn't ruin the moment. All you had to do buddy was to stand there and watch as we kissed, seriously internet pervy boys would pay good money to see that so it would have been a free show for you…no wait, I would have paid for your show with the tip!" She said ranting at him.

------

"I don't know, it all just happened really suddenly." Peyton said talking at her computer screen, a small smile washing over her face as she looked down at her stomach. "But I am really happy for the first time, in a long time." She said looking back up to the computer screen.

Lucas walked to Peyton's doorway and stood against the doorframe, watching Peyton. She was at her computer making a pod cast, wow it had been a long time since she had made a pod cast. He looked closer at the screen and saw an image of a guy on it. She wasn't making a pod cast she was having a webcam conversation with someone, her dad? No, it was someone else… "Knock, knock." Lucas said instead of tapping of the door.

"Hey Luke.." Said the voice from the computer.

Peyton turned around and saw Lucas standing in the door way. She watched as Lucas walked further into the bedroom, over towards her.

"Hey Jake…" Lucas said rather loudly so that Jake could hear him from where he was standing.

Peyton turned back and looked at the computer screen, "Listen um, we've gotta talk." She said talking about her and Lucas, she smiled at her webcam. "But thanks for getting in contact with me Jake." She said genuinely, "I'll speak to you later."

"See ya." Jake said over the computer.

Peyton leaned forward and turned off her webcam and closed down her conversation with Jake. She turned on her computer chair and looked up at Lucas who sat down on her bed, with a weird look on his face. "What's with the look?"

Lucas shook his head, "Nothing…" He said in complete denial. Of course there was a look. Peyton was talking to Jake again, since when? Why hadn't she told him that she and Jake were being all buddy again? He could feel the green eyed envy at the pit of his stomach which made him scowl a little, "Okay…I just didn't know you and Jake were talking again." He said with a hint of his jealousy showing.

Peyton shook her head, "Oh, so you can be ill and not tell me but I can't have a conversation with Jake and not tell you?" She asked curiously. "Is that how it works Lucas, two sets of standards?" She sighed, "I haven't been talking to Jake, I logged onto the computer today and he IM'ed me…" She admitted

Lucas sighed to himself he had just had an argument with his mother over his little web of lies he really didn't feel like having another argument…well, maybe he did. A part of him thought that maybe he was her second choice which made him feel miserable. He sighed, "It's not two different standards, Peyton…I didn't tell you I had HCM because I didn't want you to worry which I knew you would and I just wanted to spare you all of that!"

"You wanted to spare me?" She spat back at him standing up from her computer chair. "You thought having me watch you collapse in the gymnasium was sparing me?" She shook her head in disbelief. She turned around and walked back over to her computer and picked up a few sheets of paper and turned back at Lucas, raising them in the air. "Let's see…" She looked at the top piece of paper. "HCM can cause shortness of breath…heart failure…oh and my favorite, sudden death which by the way according to the fact sheet here often occurs in younger patients" She threw the papers at him out of anger and hurt. She took a step closer to him; tears were falling down her cheeks… "It's bad enough finding out that someone you love has been lying to you…but finding out that they could…" She couldn't even say the word, because she was choking up from the emotions and the tears, it was all too much for her to handle. She felt as though something was wrapped around her lungs, stopping her from breathing.

Lucas stood up from the bed and took a step closer to Peyton, he was about to hug her, he needed to hug her, to comfort her. It killed him seeing her so distraught like this, which was his reason for not telling her in the first place. As went to hug her, he felt her hands press against his chest keeping him away.

"Don't." She said looking up at him, her eyes hurting from the tears and strain she was putting on them to try to stop herself from crying.

"Peyton…I'm not going to die." Lucas said looking down at her, "You're angry because I lied to you, I get that. You're angry because I didn't tell you that I was ill…and all I can do is say that I'm sorry, I'm sorry that you found out the way you did but you have to believe me Peyton, when I say that I didn't want to hurt you." He said, honestly. "I love you and that's why I'm also not sorry…because believe it or not, I was honestly looking out for you and her." He said looking down at Peyton's stomach. He looked back up at Peyton and felt his eyes beginning to water, "You mean the world to me, Peyton Elizabeth Sawyer…."

Peyton walked over to Lucas and pressed her body up against his, her head resting on his chest as he arms wrapped tightly around his waist. "I need you, Lucas." She said quietly…She needed him to be her rock because she knew that she was just an emotional wreck. So many things in her past had made her become an unstable emotional person, losing her mother and blaming herself for the accident, doing drugs to try and numb herself from all of pain she felt inside. She needed Lucas to be the one she could turn to, she needed Lucas to be the one she could rely on…she didn't want to have to question him, but was she now going to because of his lies? Her cloud of insecurities were looming over her head and she was so scared to let go of Lucas because she didn't want to become that girl again. He wanted her forgiveness and even though she was hugging him for comfort it didn't mean that he was getting her forgiveness…it just meant that she needed him.

**A/N: Hope you guys liked the latest installment. I just wanted to say thank you all for the reviews, it makes us writers always want to continue and to keep on going when we think we can't. As always, review and tell me what you think and what you would maybe like to see happen :)**


	18. Time Out

Peyton raised her right hand and pressed it against her forehead, blocking the sun's rays from her eyes. "Who knew you had the whole bond 007 lifestyle going on." Peyton took a couple of steps across the green towards her father and watched as he swung the golf club him and swung it back forward gently hitting the golf ball. Peyton watched as the ball went forward and disappeared into the hole. She laughed, "Nice shot!"

Larry turned and looked at his daughter and smirked. "You sound surprised." He said walking closer to her. He had docked in with the rest of his crew in Hilton Head last week; it was one of their more frequent stops over the years so he had taken up golf as a hobby for the couple of days they were docked. This time however, they were docked for a longer period of time so the boat could get some repairs and he had decided that instead of going home and seeing Peyton, he would invite her up to the island to spend a week with him. After their latest of their conversations via email, he was worried about his little girl. She didn't sound like her usual self, which was understandable after everything that had happened with Lucas. "I'm glad to see you've come a little more prepared this time though."

Peyton looked down at her classic golfer's outfit. Their first trip out to the golf course she had worn jeans and a t-shirt which apparently wasn't acceptable to club rules so she yesterday she had gone out and bought some ridiculous black striped trousers and a white tee and a green vest, with a matching green hat. "You're just jealous that I actually look good in this stuff." She joked taking the golf club from the back of the baggy. Lifting it in the air, she walked over to where her ball had last landed and looked down at it. "You know, this whole father – daughter bonding thing is great and all, but we could have bonded over a cheeseburger and fries." She said swinging the club at the ball, watching as it flew past the hole, way way past the hole. Peyton turned and looked at her dad, biting her bottom lip. "Yeah, maybe I should stick to crazy golf."

Larry laughed and walked over to his daughter, placing an arm around her shoulder, hugging her. "I think that maybe when you get back to Tree Hill we should get you some golf lessons."

Peyton looked up at father with her brow raised, "Yeah because back home I'm always down golf course, hitting from the tee…I'm the next Tiger Woods." She joked sarcastically but truth be told, playing golf or in her case, attempting to play golf was kind of relaxing and fun, so maybe it would be a good thing to take up golf. "Then again maybe I should take lessons that way next time your docked here in Hilton Head, I can just fly on up and we could do a tag team, you know like hustle your colleagues for some hard earned cash." She smirked, "Sounds good right?"

Larry shook his head, it was good to see her smile again. It was just plain good to see her. He hated being away from home but now it was more necessary than ever, they needed all of the money he could earn. It was his plan to earn money and that way six months or so after the baby was born, Peyton could hopefully start college and not have to worry about money. "I've got an idea – let's go bond over some cheeseburgers and fries."

Peyton smirked, "Well I'd say that is definitely one of your more better plans." Peyton started to walk towards the golf buggy, side by side with her dad.

"Speaking of cheeseburgers and fries…" Larry said trying to manipulate the next part of the conversation. "You called rake boy?" He asked looking down at his daughter concerned.

Peyton laughed, "Seriously?" She turned and looked up at her father amused that he had even attempted to carry the conversation on with that transition. "Speaking of cheeseburger and fries, have you called rake boy?" She said mimicking her father's voice. She rolled her eyes, "If you wanted to know if I've called Lucas, all ya had to was ask."

Larry nodded, "Okay…so have you called Lucas?"

Peyton shrugged, "Yeah, I called him a couple of days ago."

Larry raised his brow, disbelievingly. "Really? When exactly?" He asked trying to get more specifics from her

Peyton turned and looked up at her father and rolled her eyes, "Ummm…when I first got here." She admitted. She had been in Hilton Head for six days already and was scheduled to fly home tomorrow. Peyton had been so happy to hear from her father and when he had invited her to come up and see him she jumped at the chance.

"Peyton…" Larry sighed and stopped looking at his daughter, "I know you're hurt that Lucas concealed his illness from you but like you said, he was doing what he thought was right."

Peyton sighed and turned back, looking at her father. "I've already had this conversation with Lucas….I really don't need to go over it again." She said annoyed, somehow people were siding with Lucas, saying that well they could understand why he did what he did because he was doing it protect her. The truth was deep down she understood too – but that didn't stop her from freezing Lucas out before she came out to see her father. He had tried so hard to be there with her, at school, at home – he had even arranged a dinner date for the two of them but at the last minute she pulled out because her father had invited her up to Hilton Head. "I'm sorry" Peyton paused, "I just needed some space. Ever since I found out about…" She pointed to her stomach, which was a little bigger than it had been before, she wasn't noticeably pregnant but it was slowly getting that way. "It's just been non-stop and I just needed a time out."

Larry nodded understanding. He smiled and walked over to Peyton wrapping his arm around her neck, bringing her head closer to him as he kissed her forehead. "I know – but you've just got to take everything one day at a time. If you think everything is becoming too much, tell Lucas, or Karen or me – you don't have to do everything by yourself."

Peyton nodded, "I know…" She had just been so used to doing everything by herself in the past that she had kind of adopted that same attitude for the pregnancy, but it was nice that so many people cared about her and were watching out for her. "So, we gonna bond over food or what, cause I'm fricken starving!" She said changing the subject.

Larry laughed, "Always hungry."

Peyton frowned, "Hey, I'm eating for two now…gotta keep up my strength." She said flashing her pearly whites in his direction.

------

Lucas pulled on two of the door handles and stepped inside of the empty gymnasium. It had been two weeks since he had last been inside. Doctors had advised him not to do any kind of exercise that would be to strenuous and his mother had specifically told him not to even think about touching a basketball until the doctors had given him the all clear to go back to playing…which they had done, two hours ago. Lucas looked around and smiled, it was good to be back inside. This was after all his last year of high school and probably the last time he would ever play basketball competitively, so he had everything intention of enjoying every moment of it.

"Hey broody…" Brooke walked up from behind Lucas and took a step beside him, looking around the gymnasium. "You had better watch out, if Whitey catches you in here he'll call your mom and she'll tan your skinny white ass." She joked playfully.

Lucas laughed and turned to look at Brooke, "Yeah well, not today she won't." He paused, "I got the all clear."

"Lucas that's great." Brooke paused and was about to hug him but stopped, it was awkward. "Do we – uh?" She paused and watched as Lucas nodded, "okay." Brooke took a step closer to him and wrapped her arms around his neck, hugging him. "That's really great news – especially since the teams kind of sucked without you." She said taking a step back.

Lucas raised his brow, "Yeah, well I won't be back to full speed not yet at least, I'm supposed to ease back into it." Lucas sighed and looked up to the bleachers where he had last seen Peyton before he had collapsed. "Hey um…" He turned and looked down at Brooke, "have you talked to Peyton since she went away?"

Brooke paused, what was she supposed to say? "Um…"She knew for a fact that Lucas had been calling Peyton non-stop this past week and that Peyton had been ignoring his calls because she wanted some space.

"Brooke you don't have to lie to me…I just wanna make sure she's okay." Lucas said honestly. Peyton had been away six days but somehow it felt like it had been longer. He was missing her so much that it was driving him crazy knowing that she was ignoring his calls and his green eyed, jealous side was telling him that she was probably talking to Jake.

Brooke nodded, "She's fine.." Brooke smiled, awkwardly. "She just needed some space."

Lucas nodded understanding, but he couldn't hide the disappointment from his facial expression. "You sure that's all it is?" Lucas added a moment later.

Brooke raised her brow, "Why are you worried that she's jumped on a plane to go Savannah and see Jake?" Brooke watched as Lucas's expression changed from disappointed to – well she wasn't sure what his facial expression was, she had never seen him look like that before. "Peyton told me that you walked in on her as she and Jake were talking." Brooke paused and looked over to the double doors, seeing the basketball team walking towards the gymnasium. She smiled and looked back at Lucas, "Hey – you've got nothing to worry about."

"What makes you so sure?" Lucas asked, not believing her.

Brooke shrugged, "She's known where Jake has been since before the start of summer but she stayed here to play patty cake and get knocked by you." Brooke turned about to walk away but paused, "Oh yeah, and the fact that she told me so." Brooke winked back at him before turning and walk across the gymnasium towards the designated cheerleading spot.

"What the hell do you think your doing here?" Coach Durham belted out across the gymnasium at Lucas. "You're not supposed to be inside the gymnasium until you've been cleared by the docs – you're not even supposed to look at basketball."

Lucas smirked and walked up to the Coach and pulled out a piece of paper from the back of his jeans. "I guess it's a good thing that I've got a doctors note then." He said pleased with himself.

"Then why the hell ain't you suited up." Coach Durham retorted

Lucas laughed, "Great to be back." Lucas walked past Coach Durham and past his team mates getting patted on the back by each of them as he walked by them.

----

Brooke walked out of the changing rooms, she was now nice and clean. During practise things had gotten a little out of hand celebrating Lucas being back so a water fight broke out and somehow she had managed to get the brunt of the fight. So now she was showered and changed. She stopped in her tracks seeing Nathan down the corridor, leaning against the wall. Slowly she walked up to him, holding onto her black backpack. "Waiting for someone?"

Nathan turned and looked at Brooke and smiled, "Yes I am and she's just arrived." He watched as Brooke raised her brow and continued to walk past him. He bent down and picked up his backpack and followed her, "So you want a ride home?"

Brooke turned and looked at Nathan with a grin pulling out her car keys, "I drove to school."

Nathan nodded, "Great then you can give me a ride home…"

Brooke raised her brow, confused "But you asked me…"

Nathan interrupted her, "I asked you if you wanted a ride home – truth is, I didn't drive today, so I was hoping you did – that way you would offer me a ride."

Brooke rolled her eyes, " and what if I hadn't driven today? What would you have done then? Whore it up and ask another cheerleader?" She asked jokingly.

Nathan smirked amused at her banter, "No, I would have walked you home like a gentleman…"

Brooke scoffed, "You a gentleman?" Brooke couldn't help but smile. The two of them hadn't really seen each other since that fateful night two weeks ago when they had almost kissed but the stupid pizza boy interrupted them. Ever since then, Nathan had done exactly what she had suggested he did; be with Haley as a shoulder to cry on, an ear to talk to. During school time, they hung out in the courtyard…which honestly kind of irked her, it shouldn't have done since she was the one who suggested that he make nice but it did. Who knew being such a super nice person was such a pain the ass, if she knew being this nice was going to be so fricken hard she would have stayed the ultra slutty Brooke Davis from junior year. "Fine, but we're not listening to any of that rock crap that you listen to. It's my music."

Nathan sighed at the thought of having to listen to her music. He had been in the car with her before and her car music consisted of NSync, Backstreet boys and Britney Spears. He knew for a fact that she liked decent music, but for some reason her car music was just plain crap.

Brooke raised her brow at his obvious sigh, "You can always walk home, Romeo."

Nathan shook his head, if it were someone else driving he probably would have just walked home but he hadn't spent any time with Brooke recently and he missed hanging out with her, he missed the almost kissing her – so if listening to crap music that made you want to tear your hair out was a necessity then he was going to do it. "So does that make you my Juliet?" He asked playfully in respond to her Romeo comment.

Brooke scoffed again, "Please, I'm not killing myself over some dumb ass lover boy who's on the run from the law…" Brooke shrugged, "Besides, I don't want anymore boy drama." She said honestly referring to her last relationship with a Scott and how well that ended out.

"Well it's a good thing that I'm drama free then, huh?" Nathan said with a cocky grin on his face.

Brooke rolled her eyes and continued to walk down the school hallway with Nathan in tow.

------

"I'll be back in a sec, tell Gus to not peek at my cards!" Peyton yelled across the hotel's courtyard which also contained a pool and a pool side bar. She had been playing poker for the past hour with her father and three of his colleagues and to her surprise was kicking all of their asses, Brooke had taught her something useful. Peyton slipped the hotel key card into the slot and pushed on the door. Walking into the hotel bedroom, she turned on the light and headed over to her bed. Sitting down she picked up her cell phone from the beside cabinet and looked at the screen, two missed calls…from Lucas. She smiled, and flipped her phone open, dialling his number.

The cell started to ring on the bedside cabinet. Lucas walked into his bedroom and past his bed, sitting down on it. He picked up his cell and looked at the caller ID and gently smiled to himself. Pressing the answer button, he lifted the phone to his ear. "Hey…"

Peyton smiled hearing his voice, "Hey…" She paused, and laid further back on the bed. "Sorry I didn't answer any of your calls…"

"No it's okay, I um – I get it, you just needed some space."

Peyton nodded, "Right…yeah." She sighed, "Well I think I'm pretty much spaced out." She paused again, "I miss you…" She said quietly.

Lucas smiled and leant further back on his bed, looking up at the ceiling. He was glad she called but hearing her say that she missed him cleared up any doubts that had been floating around in his mind. "I miss you too…"

"Yeah?" Peyton asked questioningly. "Not enjoying the week long girlfriend free drama?"

Lucas shook his head and laughed, "No, I like the girlfriend drama…I say more girlfriend drama."

Peyton laughed. "Okay, well be careful what you wish for, Scott!" She closed her eyes, "So this week has just been absolutely crazy…apparently my father is the next Tiger Woods…" She said spouting on about what she had been doing this week. It was good just to talk to him again, just to talk about the random things she had been doing. When she was at the airport she had been dying to get away from Tree Hill but now she couldn't wait to get back.


	19. Sexually Charged

A month flew by quickly. The month of November hadn't been very memorable apart from Thanksgiving. She had spent the holiday at Lucas's with Karen, Keith and her father. The guys had been talking sports for the majority of the day, while Peyton had helped out Karen in the kitchen. It was nice – being a part of a family again. Apart from hanging out with Lucas, she had been working hard on school work making sure that she was ahead of the rest of her class. It had been hard work, lots of reading, lots of private tutoring sessions with different teachers from different subjects. Technically she was smarter than the rest of her class; well advanced in their lessons.

"Hey P.Sawyer." Brooke grinned walking into her best friend's bedroom. "You ready for a little one on one shopping?" Brooke was snuggled up warmly in a long pair of denim jeans, a blue turtle neck and a white jacket with a blue beanie hat, matching scarf and gloves. "I love Christmas – the cold weather, the egg nog with alcohol!" She paused and grinned, "But more importantly the presents!" She clapped her hands together excitedly; it was only two more weeks until Christmas Day.

Peyton smirked up at her best friend from her double bed. Jumping up off of the bed, she showed off her tiny baby bump which looked more like a bloated stomach than an actual baby bump. "Yeah, well I've already got my dad's present, and Haley's, and Karen's…and yours" Peyton grinned watching as Brooke's face lit up like a little child who had just walked downstairs to be greeted by a Christmas tree with lots of presents underneath the tree.

"Ooh, really…what did you get me?" Brooke asked excitedly.

"Not telling..." Peyton walked over to her closet and pulled out her white warm winter jacket. Putting the jacket on she frowned, "I don't know what to get Lucas, though. " Zipping up her jacket she bobbed her head from side to side, "I was thinking a record, but that doesn't seem enough."

Brooke walked over to Peyton's mirror and applied a small amount of pink lip gloss to her lips. "Uh, you're giving him a baby…I think that's a big enough gift." She looked at herself in the mirror, "At least you have somebody to give a present too…" resting her hands on her hips she let out a large sigh.

"Nathan still giving you the cold shoulder?" Peyton asked curiously.

"No, he's not giving me any kind of shoulder." Brooke frowned and walked over to Peyton's bed, allowing herself to fall on top of it. "Seriously…an almost kiss over a month ago and that's were our story ends?" She frowned, "Maybe I should just forget about it and move on…"

Peyton nodded, "Maybe…"

"Thanks for the support!" Brooke frowned and let out a deep sigh as she threw herself backwards onto Peyton's double bed.

"I'm just saying – he's got a lot of history." Peyton walked over to the bed and sat beside Brooke's horizontal body. "I mean he dated me, married Haley, are you really sure you wanna go there?" She paused, "Then again I understand why you would… he's good looking…and good in bed." Peyton covered her mouth as soon as she said it. "Oh god…"

Brooke sat straight back up from the bed and stared at her best friend, "I'm sorry? Good in bed?" Brooke asked back to her, tilting her head curiously. "Good looking? Peyton Sawyer are you thinking of hooking up with Nathan Scott aka the boy who I kissed once and almost kissed again?"

Peyton shook her head and fell backwards on the bed. "No." Reaching across the bed she picked up one of her pillows and tried to smother her face, embarrassed about what had just exited her mouth. Lately she had been having, well hormonal surges. It seemed as though the only thing she could think about was sex – Peyton pulled back the pillow and sighed. "I've been having…uh, pregnancy related urges." She felt her cheeks flare up, embarrassing topic much. "I've been um, a little…"

"Horny?" Brooke asked watching her best friend squirm. "Totally natural!" Brooke stood up and walked over to the mirror and pouted at herself. "I read it in one of those what to be expecting when you're expecting." She had been reading up on pregnancy so that Peyton didn't have to go through it alone. "This is like your second trimester so you're no longer having that horrible morning sickness, yay for you and yay for us…" Brooke watched as Peyton looked at her confused, "You've been a little moody and I can say it because you know I love you." Brooke grinned. "This trimester is supposed to be the easiest, so just enjoy!"

Peyton stood up from her bed and wrapped her arms around Brooke, hugging her. "Thank you."

Brooke felt her body tense up, not being able to breathe. "Hug me, don't suffocate me!" She said jokingly. "If you want my opinion, milk the horny dino for all it's worth. I mean when are you going to be able to use the excuse, hey let's have sex because my hormones are telling me to!"

"Yeah but wouldn't that mean I'm just using Lucas for sex?" Peyton sighed, she felt so conflicted. The majority of her wanted to go round to Lucas, pounce him and just get the overwhelming, roar sexual needs out of her system, so she could just go back to being the knocked up teenager in school. "You know what…I don't care. I want to have sex" Peyton grinned and walked over to her cell phone, dialling Lucas's cell number and listened as Brooke giggled in the background as the phone rang. "Hey…where are you right now?" Peyton listened to him, "Nothing's wrong, I just wanna see you." Peyton bit her bottom lip, so many dirty, x-rated scenes going through her mind.

--

--

Peyton looked through the café's window and saw Lucas sat at a table with Nathan. She looked down at her clothes, as soon as she had gotten off of the phone she had changed her outfit putting on a short black skirt and a black thin strapped top, which accentuated her newly boosted cleavage, courtesy of her pregnancy. "I look like a tramp." She said looking at her body, "A pregnant tramp." She said referring to her baby bump.

"Shut up, you look great. If I were a guy, I'd so do you." Brooke responded trying to lift Peyton's spirit. Peyton had been very self conscious about the baby bump, thinking that she didn't look sexy with the belly…but she still looked good to Brooke, especially with the boobs which seemed like they had appeared over night. Peyton had even asked Brooke to borrow a few pretty bras, since she had gone up to the same cup size as her. "Go have sex!" Brooke cheered her on.

Peyton turned and looked at Brooke and rolled her eyes, "Brooke I'm not going to jump him in the café!" Peyton turned and walked over to the café's door, pulling on it. As she entered, she felt a little more confident and the closer she reached the boys table the more she could smell their sweat from running – which was a strange turn on for her. "Hey!" Peyton smiled at the two of them and then turned to look at the counter, where Brooke was standing nodding her head, telling her to go for it.

Lucas looked up at Peyton and couldn't help but stare. "Whoa…" She was definitely showing off her filled figure, which both annoyed him because no doubt other guys would be looking at her, ogling her body and excited him, because he liked it when Peyton was confident with herself and it was very much evident that she felt comfortable with her body today.

"Really?" Her insecurities popping through as she ran her hand over her slight baby bump, feel a little more self conscious. "You don't think it's too much?"

"You look good" Nathan jumped in, voicing his opinion. Not that he didn't like Peyton before her transformation, but he was certainly enjoying the more well defined curves she was sporting these days.

"Thanks…" Peyton grinned at Nathan, he looked good all sweaty in his tank top. Pulling out the chair, she looked at him with the grin still plastered on her face. "You look good too, Nate. You been working out?" She asked biting her bottom lip. Oh god, what was she doing? She was flirting with her ex boyfriend in front of his brother and her current boyfriend but she couldn't help herself. "So how are things with Haley, these days?"

"Uh" Nathan was caught off guard, not exactly the question he was expecting. Things between him and Haley had been good lately, they had been hanging out purely as friends. He thought that Haley was still in love with him – not surprising since he was still in love with Haley, but just not like he used to be. Add Brooke into the equation and he was just confused.

Peyton grinned, "Do you prefer blondes or brunettes?" She was playing with him, Haley had recently gone a little blonder while Brooke was all brunette. Trying to get a read off of him, so that she could report back to Brooke telling her either to hold on and keep pining because he was into her or to back off because he was still in love with Haley.

Nathan knew exactly what she was doing. Brooke had most likely told her about the kiss and the almost kiss, he sighed. "I don't know Peyton, do you prefer blondes or brunettes?" He threw the question back at her playfully, in other words did she liked the new boyfriend Lucas or was she still hung up on him, the ex boyfriend.

Peyton turned and looked at Lucas, who clearly wasn't enjoying the conversation. She thought she could see a hint of jealousy on his face. Smiling, she stood up and walked up to Lucas, sitting down on his lap facing him. "Listen, I know I'm not being myself right now…" She leaned across and whispered into his ear. "But I kinda need to have sex."

Lucas pulled back at looked at her, shocked. "What?" Had he heard her clearly? Peyton had never been so open or upfront with him, especially not in a sexual way.

"Now!" Peyton slid off of Lucas's lap and stood up, looking down at him.

Lucas looked up at Peyton, he was certainly getting turned on by her authority like stance over him. He turned and looked across the table at his brother, who he had promised to practise with down at the river court. "Gotta go." Lucas stood up and felt Peyton's hand intertwine with his, as she led him out of the café.

Nathan watched as the two of them walked out of the café. He felt a little jealous, maybe it was seeing the two of them so happy and together or maybe it was some lingering feelings for Peyton. He wasn't sure. Standing up, he looked over to the counter where Brooke was placing her order. Slowly he made his way over to her, "Hey…so I take it Peyton knows about us?" He asked directly.

Brooke shrugged, "I don't know what you're talking about." She said playing dumb at his question. Grabbing her to go to cup from the counter, she handed the girl behind the counter the money. Turning she looked up at the six foot two dark haired all star athlete standing in front of her. "In order for there to be an us, there has to be a declaration of some sort of feelings…I don't think a kiss and an almost kiss, qualifies as that!" Brooke rolled her eyes, annoyed at his complete clueless-ness as she started to make her way out of the café.

Nathan followed her, "Wait, are you mad at me?"

Brooke turned and looked at Nathan, "Why would I be mad at you?" She asked, it was of course a rhetorical question. "Maybe because for the past month you've been completely ignoring me, no cold shoulder, no warm shoulder…nothing. If we're not going to be anything more than friends, then I just wanna go back to being friends. No uncomfortable silences, no almost kisses. You can't have your cake and eat it too." Brooke grabbed the café door handle and pulled on it, walking out.

Nathan let out a deep sigh, wasn't it bad enough he was torn between two girls…now he had to actually choose? He hated that he had to do something – he liked pretending that nothing was going on, well he didn't like it – it was easier. Nathan watched through the window as Brooke walked away down the street. A few minutes later, he grabbed a hold of the door and exited the café.

"Thanks for covering Marie." Haley said approaching the counter. She had been putting her apron in between the kitchen and the café floor. The walls were thin, there were no customers and Brooke and Nathan weren't exactly discreet about their conversation. She stepped up the counter and watched Nathan through the window as he walked down the street. So Nathan and Brooke?


End file.
